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Deutsche Welle;World-first face, eye transplant a 'cautious' success story;https://www.dw.com/en/world-first-face-eye-transplant-a-cautious-success-story/a-70180158?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Aaron James made history when New York surgeons performed the world's first face and whole eye transplant in 2023. A year on, he says the procedure has given him a new lease on life. |
Deutsche Welle;Hydrogen vs battery: The race for the truck of the future;https://www.dw.com/en/hydrogen-vs-battery-the-race-for-the-truck-of-the-future/a-69456987?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Truck manufacturers are under immense pressure to cut emissions. But should they bet on batteries, hydrogen fuel cells or both? Multinationals are reaching different conclusions. And the wrong choice could be expensive. |
Deutsche Welle;What Volkswagen's woes say about Germany's economic future;https://www.dw.com/en/what-volkswagen-s-woes-say-about-germany-s-economic-future/a-70150224?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Job cuts and possible factory closures at Germany's largest carmaker are a symptom of a wider malaise in Europe's largest economy. Are the doomsayers right or will the "Made In Germany" monicker reign supreme again? |
Deutsche Welle;Kamala Harris and Donald Trump trade barbs on economy;https://www.dw.com/en/kamala-harris-and-donald-trump-trade-barbs-on-economy/a-70185008?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Inflation and the economy were central themes in the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Both candidates have strikingly differing plans on an issue Trump thinks he can win on. |
Deutsche Welle;Nagelsmann's Germany keep shining after Euro 2024;https://www.dw.com/en/nagelsmann-s-germany-keep-shining-after-euro-2024/a-70171474?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | A spirited draw against the Netherlands concluded a positive September for Germany, who kept their momentum rolling. |
Deutsche Welle;Germany: Cross-party migration talks break down;https://www.dw.com/en/germany-cross-party-migration-talks-break-down/a-70182751?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | A second round of high-level German talks on migration in Berlin ended without agreement. The conservative opposition said it would not attend further meetings. But the coalition government still unveiled a new proposal. |
Deutsche Welle;Palestinian national football team eye World Cup and homecoming;https://www.dw.com/en/palestinian-national-football-team-eye-world-cup-and-homecoming/a-70165044?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | The Palestinian men's football team is closer to World Cup qualification than it has ever been. But with all that is happening in their homeland, the chance to play back where they belong also means plenty. |
Deutsche Welle;Can European cities lead the way for climate action?;https://www.dw.com/en/can-european-cities-lead-the-way-for-climate-action/a-69642554?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Over 100 cities have committed to ambitious climate targets by 2030. From free public transport for youth in Porto to green construction in Warsaw and closing Helsinki's coal plants, here's how they plan to do it. |
Deutsche Welle;German princess gave US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito $900 in concert tickets;https://www.dw.com/en/german-princess-gave-us-supreme-court-justice-samuel-alito-900-in-concert-tickets/a-70159689?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito disclosed receiving concert tickets worth $900 from German socialite and "princess" Gloria von Thurn und Taxis. |
Deutsche Welle;Milky Way is bigger than we thought, even touching Andromeda;https://www.dw.com/en/milky-way-is-bigger-than-we-thought-even-touching-andromeda/a-70154211?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Galaxies are much bigger than we originally thought, extending far out into deep space — so far that the Milky Way likely interacts with our closest neighbor, Andromeda. |
Deutsche Welle;Beethovenfest: Making classical music accessible to all;https://www.dw.com/en/beethovenfest-making-classical-music-accessible-to-all/a-70171262?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Under the motto "Together," the Beethovenfest in Bonn is aiming to create a democratic and inclusive experience that calls for the public's participation — going far beyond the music. |
Deutsche Welle;EU report calls for €800 billion investment boost;https://www.dw.com/en/eu-report-calls-for-€800-billion-investment-boost/a-70173239?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | In a report on EU competitiveness, former ECB chief Mario Draghi proposes "radical change" to counter aggressive competition from China and the US. He touts the use of joint EU borrowing and other controversial measures. |
Deutsche Welle;Berlin plans new mass accommodation for refugees;https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-plans-new-mass-accommodation-for-refugees/a-70169283?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Immigration has become a hot-button issue in Germany. Refugee accommodation centers in Berlin are full to overflowing, but there's a desperate lack of housing. Now, authorities are coming up with bright ideas. |
Deutsche Welle;Bye-bye body positivity, hello 'heroin chic'?;https://www.dw.com/en/bye-bye-body-positivity-hello-heroin-chic/a-70026120?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Low-rise jeans and belly button piercings are back on runways and streets, coinciding with a viral hype around weight-loss drugs like Ozempic. Are "magic" injections and Y2K nostalgia the end of body positivity? |
Deutsche Welle;Will German police get to do secret house searches?;https://www.dw.com/en/will-german-police-get-to-do-secret-house-searches/a-70154300?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office wants to secretly break into homes as part of anti-terrorism measures. That is currently prohibited, but the interior minister has far-reaching plans. |
Deutsche Welle;Germany: Football games under match-fixing investigation;https://www.dw.com/en/germany-football-games-under-match-fixing-investigation/a-70164395?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Authorities in several German states are investigating reports of match-fixing in 17 lower-league football matches. The manipulation is reported to have taken place in connection with online betting firms. |
Deutsche Welle;After Brazil's X ban, what social media alternatives exist?;https://www.dw.com/en/after-brazil-s-x-ban-what-social-media-alternatives-exist/a-70146551?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Elon Musk's platform X, formerly Twitter, has received plenty of criticism over the years. After Brazilians found themselves blocked from the social media platform last week, many were left searching for alternatives. |
Deutsche Welle;Students want to strip Adolf Hitler of honorary citizenship;https://www.dw.com/en/students-want-to-strip-adolf-hitler-of-honorary-citizenship/a-70155685?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Thousands of German towns and municipalities once made Adolf Hitler an honorary citizen, and many have still not distanced themselves from the Nazi dictator. But now, students in Bad Honnef are taking action. |
Deutsche Welle;AI: Money-making machine or a billion-dollar sinkhole?;https://www.dw.com/en/ai-money-making-machine-or-a-billion-dollar-sinkhole/a-70136557?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Scores of climate conferences have been held to slow global warming — but greenhouse gas emissions continue rising. Could AI help tackle the climate crisis? |
Deutsche Welle;Time to criminalize environmental damage, says survey;https://www.dw.com/en/time-to-criminalize-environmental-damage-says-survey/a-70143258?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | A majority of people across 22 countries are deeply concerned about the future of our planet. A new survey shows over 70% want to punish those who harm nature and the climate. |
Deutsche Welle;Germany hammer Hungary 5-0 in Nations League match;https://www.dw.com/en/germany-hammer-hungary-5-0-in-nations-league-match/a-70162964?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Germany dominated in their Nations League match against Hungary, beating the visitors 5-0. Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz dazzled for what's seen as a new era for Germany. |
Deutsche Welle;1994: Remembering when World War II Allies left Berlin;https://www.dw.com/en/1994-remembering-when-world-war-ii-allies-left-berlin/a-70156413?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Thirty years ago, the military presence of the US, Great Britain, France and the former Soviet Union came to an end in Germany. Their legacies remain. |
Deutsche Welle;Hedgehogs threatened by robot mowers, German activists warn;https://www.dw.com/en/hedgehogs-threatened-by-robot-mowers-german-activists-warn/a-70160521?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Robot mowers damage biodiversity and harm many creatures, including hedgehogs, according to German conservationists. Some of them are calling for a ban on nighttime mowing. |
Deutsche Welle;German support for Ukraine under pressure from populists;https://www.dw.com/en/german-support-for-ukraine-under-pressure-from-populists/a-70138863?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | The populist BSW and far-right AfD parties, both of which did well in recent state elections in Saxony and Thuringia, are opposed to arms deliveries to Ukraine. This stance is having an impact on federal politics. |
Deutsche Welle;Germany: Hundreds evacuated due to Harz Mountains fire;https://www.dw.com/en/germany-hundreds-evacuated-due-to-harz-mountains-fire/a-70159334?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Multiple aircraft were deployed to help put out a large fire in the Harz Mountains of central Germany, with the blaze expected to continue burning for days. |
Deutsche Welle;Alex Morgan: The greatest female footballer of all time?;https://www.dw.com/en/alex-morgan-the-greatest-female-footballer-of-all-time/a-70153127?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Marta may have won six FIFA player awards, but two-time World Cup winner Alex Morgan is more of a household name. Teammate Megan Rapinoe achieved on and off the field, yet Morgan had a grace on the pitch few could match. |
Deutsche Welle;Goethe Medal 2024: Celebrating three women in the arts;https://www.dw.com/en/goethe-medal-2024-celebrating-three-women-in-the-arts/a-70151283?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Germany's highest prize for foreign cultural policy goes to Claudia Cabrera, Carmen Romero Quero and Iskra Geshoska. They pursue their vision despite all obstacles. |
Deutsche Welle;Disgruntled German voters want change;https://www.dw.com/en/disgruntled-german-voters-want-change/a-70150936?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Support for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left government has reached a new low, according to the monthly ARD Deutschlandtrend poll. But who stands to gain? |
Deutsche Welle;Drugs, human trafficking top organized crime in Germany;https://www.dw.com/en/drugs-human-trafficking-top-organized-crime-in-germany/a-70148060?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Most organized crime investigations in Germany involve drug offenses, racketeering and property crimes. But human smuggling is becoming a lucrative business model. |
Deutsche Welle;Germany's ter Stegen is happy the wait is finally over;https://www.dw.com/en/germany-s-ter-stegen-is-happy-the-wait-is-finally-over/a-70144838?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | National team goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen has spoken of his frustration during years of being stuck behind Manuel Neuer, while at the same time paying tribute to his predecessor. |
Deutsche Welle;No cancer danger from mobile phones, research concludes;https://www.dw.com/en/no-cancer-danger-from-mobile-phones-research-concludes/a-70133650?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | A review of 28 years of research has shown that mobile phones and wireless tech devices are not linked to increased risk of cancer. The radio waves they emit do not contain enough energy to damage the human body or DNA. |
Deutsche Welle;Australia's Raygun claims 'I knew people wouldn't understand my style';https://www.dw.com/en/australia-s-raygun-claims-i-knew-people-wouldn-t-understand-my-style/a-70135037?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Rachael "Raygun" Gunn, the 37-year-old Olympic breaker, says the criticism of her performance came from people's ignorance. |
Deutsche Welle;Women's soccer: US shows up Europe on maternity care;https://www.dw.com/en/women-s-soccer-us-shows-up-europe-on-maternity-care/a-70117081?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | A recent lawsuit involving French club Olympique Lyon highlighted the disparities and room for improvement in women's football regarding pregnancies and maternity care. |
Deutsche Welle;Argentina: Court blocks Milei move to privatize football;https://www.dw.com/en/argentina-court-blocks-milei-move-to-privatize-football/a-70122667?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | A court in Buenos Aires has blocked President Javier Milei's plans to open up Argentinian football to private investment. The issue continues to split the country's most popular sport, with some even looking to Germany. |
Deutsche Welle;VW's warning on plant closures in Germany causes outcry;https://www.dw.com/en/vw-s-warning-on-plant-closures-in-germany-causes-outcry/a-70123969?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Europe's biggest carmaker is intensifying cost-cutting measures that no longer rule out plant closures or layoffs in Germany. This has sparked criticism and resistance from politicians and labor unions. |
Deutsche Welle;Germany's Leon Draisaitl signs record NHL contract;https://www.dw.com/en/germany-s-leon-draisaitl-signs-record-nhl-contract/a-70124333?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Germany's Leon Draisaitl has signed an eight-year contract extension worth $112 million (€101.5 million). This will keep the superstar forward in Edmonton for a further eight years. |
Deutsche Welle;German minister wants DB to make cuts and trains run on time;https://www.dw.com/en/german-minister-wants-db-to-make-cuts-and-trains-run-on-time/a-70119726?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Transport Minister Volker Wissing has called on state-owned rail carrier Deutsche Bahn to improve punctuality "in the short term," but also to make cuts and improve its bottom line. He wants quarterly progress reports. |
Deutsche Welle;India's archaic labor laws allow firms to exploit workers;https://www.dw.com/en/india-s-archaic-labor-laws-allow-firms-to-exploit-workers/a-70121341?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Major international companies, including big tech firms, are exploiting India's labor laws and skirting overtime payment, say workers. |
Deutsche Welle;US Open and the controversy over night sessions;https://www.dw.com/en/us-open-and-the-controversy-over-night-sessions/a-70121878?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | A new rule was meant to clamp down on matches at the US Open dragging on into the early hours of the next day. Still, some matches are finishing after 2:00 a.m. – to the detriment of players' health. |
Deutsche Welle;Can Germany live up to its chipmaking ambitions?;https://www.dw.com/en/can-germany-live-up-to-its-chipmaking-ambitions/a-70079606?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | The German government wants to build up its long-term chipmaking capabilities. But are they following through and attracting the companies needed to make the country a center of this all-important technology? |
Deutsche Welle;World Cup expansion gives hope to West Asian teams;https://www.dw.com/en/world-cup-expansion-gives-hope-to-west-asian-teams/a-70112089?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been dominating West Asian football, but the continent has four more assured spots at the 2026 World Cup. As third-round qualifying opens, the likes of Kuwait, Oman and Jordan may make it. |
Deutsche Welle;Ugandan Olympian set on fire in domestic assault;https://www.dw.com/en/ugandan-olympian-set-on-fire-in-domestic-assault/a-70118647?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Rebecca Cheptegei, who finished 44th in the Olympic marathon in Paris, suffered severe burns after allegedly being doused with petrol by her partner. Domestic violence against women remains a serious problem in Kenya. |
Deutsche Welle;German businesses worried about far-right gains in the east;https://www.dw.com/en/german-businesses-worried-about-far-right-gains-in-the-east/a-70112417?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | The success of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the states of Saxony and Thuringia has raised concerns among business leaders about the economic future of eastern Germany. Will it hit jobs and investment? |
Deutsche Welle;Germany coach Nagelsmann names Kimmich as new captain;https://www.dw.com/en/germany-coach-nagelsmann-names-kimmich-as-new-captain/a-70113016?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | The coach of Germany's national team has named a new captain as the team prepare for their first matches since the home Euros. Julian Nagelsmann is facing a bit of a rebuild after the retirements of four key players. |
Deutsche Welle;Infected blood scandal: A 'horrifying' global disaster;https://www.dw.com/en/infected-blood-scandal-a-horrifying-global-disaster/a-70093762?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Hundreds of thousands of people got HIV and/or hepatitis via infected blood transfusions over the past decades, and people are still dying. What have we learned? |
Deutsche Welle;The Galapagos mystery that just won't die;https://www.dw.com/en/the-galapagos-mystery-that-just-won-t-die/a-69958565?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Sex, greed and death marred a German group's search for utopia in the 1930s. A new book and a Ron Howard film revisit their media-fodder exploits, including those of a free-loving baroness dubbed "crazy panties." |
Deutsche Welle;East meets West in Tan Dun's music at the 2024 Campus Project;https://www.dw.com/en/east-meets-west-in-tan-dun-s-music-at-the-2024-campus-project/a-70107601?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | What happens when you bring together nearly 200 young musicians from 40 countries and a world-famous composer in the service of Beethoven? |
Deutsche Welle;What is hydrogen and how green is it?;https://www.dw.com/en/what-is-hydrogen-and-how-green-is-it/a-70094332?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Politicians and industry leaders meet in Namibia this week to hype hydrogen. DW takes a closer look at the pros and cons of the powerful gas, widely regarded as a key part of a green energy future. |
Deutsche Welle;Oasis tickets: UK government to probe 'dynamic pricing';https://www.dw.com/en/oasis-tickets-uk-government-to-probe-dynamic-pricing/a-70109787?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Ministers have promised an investigation after fans complained of inflated ticket prices for Oasis' 2025 reunion tour. But industry experts insist that "dynamic pricing" is not illegal and based on supply and demand. |
Deutsche Welle;Oasis reunion tour tickets cause online frenzy;https://www.dw.com/en/oasis-reunion-tour-tickets-cause-online-frenzy/a-70099805?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Fans of the Manchester band Oasis faced long online queues on Saturday morning as tickets went on sale for the group's in-demand reunion concerts. |
Deutsche Welle;Half the world lacks access to safe drinking water;https://www.dw.com/en/half-the-world-lacks-access-to-safe-drinking-water/a-70089835?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | A new report shows 4.4 billion people across the world have no access to safe drinking water, more than double many previous estimates. |
Deutsche Welle;Japan's youth break tradition by embracing perfume;https://www.dw.com/en/japan-s-youth-break-tradition-by-embracing-perfume/a-70091052?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Once seen as ostentatious, an imposition on others, and unnecessary in a culture that famously enjoys bathing, perfumes and scents are finally trending among young Japanese. |
Deutsche Welle;What is methane?;https://www.dw.com/en/what-is-methane/a-69919651?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | It's short-lived but its planet-heating effects are much stronger than CO2. Where does methane come from, and what can we do to stop it from getting into the atmosphere? |
Deutsche Welle;The unseen Holocaust movie: Jerry Lewis' lost film 'The Day the Clown Cried';https://www.dw.com/en/the-unseen-holocaust-movie-jerry-lewis-lost-film-the-day-the-clown-cried/a-70043956?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | At the Venice Film Festival, a new documentary will reveal never-before-seen footage from "The Day the Clown Cried." The 1972 Holocaust movie by comedian Jerry Lewis was never released, but has gained near-mythic status. |
Deutsche Welle;Champions League: German clubs look forward to attractive opponents;https://www.dw.com/en/champions-league-german-clubs-look-forward-to-attractive-opponents/a-70090811?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | This season's draw for the Champions League wasn't about putting teams into groups but simply determining who would play whom in the new eight-match league phase. |
Deutsche Welle;'Concerning' rise in unprotected sex among teenagers;https://www.dw.com/en/concerning-rise-in-unprotected-sex-among-teenagers/a-70079734?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | A majority of teenagers in Europe, Central Asia, and Canada do not use condoms. Experts warn of rising risks of STIs and unwanted pregnancies. |
Deutsche Welle;Glammed up in the kitchen: Influencers drive 'tradwife' nostalgia;https://www.dw.com/en/glammed-up-in-the-kitchen-influencers-drive-tradwife-nostalgia/a-70071650?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | The "traditional wife" trend celebrates orthodox gender roles. But does this thriving movement on TikTok and Instagram also serve the far-right political agenda? |
Deutsche Welle;Populists’ rhetoric linked to growing unhappiness, study finds;https://www.dw.com/en/populists-rhetoric-linked-to-growing-unhappiness-study-finds/a-70072409?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Right-wing populism is rising across Europe, with Germany’s AfD possibly becoming the first far-right party to win state elections since the Nazis. However, their rise won’t bring greater happiness to their supporters. |
Deutsche Welle;Marc-André ter Stegen: Germany's new No. 1;https://www.dw.com/en/marc-andré-ter-stegen-germany-s-new-no-1/a-70069040?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | For years, Marc-André ter Stegen was stuck behind Manuel Neuer in the German national team. Now that Neuer has retired, the job is ter Stegen's for the taking. |
Deutsche Welle;Russia airspace ban on Western airlines helps Chinese rivals;https://www.dw.com/en/russia-airspace-ban-on-western-airlines-helps-chinese-rivals/a-70025268?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Russia has banned many European carriers from using its airspace in response to sanctions over Ukraine. That's boosted Chinese airlines' market share, but it's not the only reason Western carriers are struggling. |
Deutsche Welle;Congo 'working blindly' in attempts to control Mpox outbreak;https://www.dw.com/en/congo-working-blindly-in-attempts-to-control-mpox-outbreak/a-70062357?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Only 40% of Mpox cases in DR Congo are laboratory tested, suggesting true number of cases could be five times higher than reported, according to Africa CDC. |
Deutsche Welle;5 reasons why Venice is this year's most important film festival;https://www.dw.com/en/5-reasons-why-venice-is-this-year-s-most-important-film-festival/a-70043247?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | The 81st Venice Film Festival is the can't-miss event for movie fans in 2024. It will feature impressive feature debuts and the return of cinema superstars. |
Deutsche Welle;Ryanair to cut flights to Berlin due to 'sky-high costs';https://www.dw.com/en/ryanair-to-cut-flights-to-berlin-due-to-sky-high-costs/a-70063074?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | The Irish budget airline says it plans to slash a fifth of traffic to Berlin-Brandenburg airport because of high access costs. |
Deutsche Welle;Germany: Will a right-wing shift hit businesses and jobs?;https://www.dw.com/en/germany-will-a-right-wing-shift-hit-businesses-and-jobs/a-70025620?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | As voters in Saxony go to the polls in state elections, some fear a sharper political turn could hurt business investments in the region and worsen a lack of qualified workers. |
Deutsche Welle;UN chief Guterres warns of fast-rising Pacific ocean;https://www.dw.com/en/un-chief-guterres-warns-of-fast-rising-pacific-ocean/a-70055845?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | UN chief Antonio Guterres issued a global SOS regarding Pacific ocean temperatures, rising at three times the global average rate. He called for a cutdown on emissions and support for vulnerable countries. |
Deutsche Welle;Telegram: How the app defies calls for hate censorship;https://www.dw.com/en/telegram-how-the-app-defies-calls-for-hate-censorship/a-70051335?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | After the arrest of Telegram's boss in France, attention is on the messaging app and its hands-off approach to content moderation. Some blame it for inflaming unrest, others see it as a den for criminal activity. |
Deutsche Welle;Eating processed meats raises type 2 diabetes risk;https://www.dw.com/en/eating-processed-meats-raises-type-2-diabetes-risk/a-70051810?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Two slices of ham a day are enough to raise type 2 diabetes risk by 15%, according to a new study. Meanwhile high-fat diets could increase the numbers of a toxic molecule known to cause the disease. |
Deutsche Welle;What is groundwater?;https://www.dw.com/en/what-is-groundwater/a-68142894?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Groundwater is crucial for agriculture and drinking water supplies. But what exactly is it, how does it form and how can we protect this precious underground resource from threats like pollution and climate change? |
Deutsche Welle;Germany’s investments in China increase despite warnings;https://www.dw.com/en/germany-s-investments-in-china-increase-despite-warnings/a-69957810?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Germany's investments in China are growing despite efforts to reduce reliance on the Asian power. China continues to be a critical trade partner for Europe's largest economy, so how to get the balance right? |
Deutsche Welle;Australian workers now have the 'right to disconnect';https://www.dw.com/en/australian-workers-now-have-the-right-to-disconnect/a-70045955?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | A law giving workers the legal "right to disconnect" from work has come into effect in Australia. This gives workers the right to ignore unreasonable contact from their employers outside of work hours. |
Deutsche Welle;South China Sea tensions pose threat to international trade;https://www.dw.com/en/south-china-sea-tensions-pose-threat-to-international-trade/a-69926497?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Maritime trade faces growing threats, including ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. Now, rising tensions in the South China Sea are adding to global security concerns over this crucial trade route. |
Deutsche Welle;Startup funding: What role does female beauty play?;https://www.dw.com/en/startup-funding-what-role-does-female-beauty-play/a-69985095?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Women who are preceived as good-looking find it easier to sell their business ideas and products to potential investors. But this is not the only gender inequality in the world of venture capital, a study says. |
Deutsche Welle;Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof to represent Germany at Oscars;https://www.dw.com/en/dissident-iranian-director-mohammad-rasoulof-to-represent-germany-at-oscars/a-70034644?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | The acclaimed film "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" has been chosen as Germany's entry for the 2025 Academy Awards. The filmmaker, who lives in exile in Berlin, fled Iran on foot earlier this year. |
Deutsche Welle;St. Pauli injects subculture into the Bundesliga;https://www.dw.com/en/st-pauli-injects-subculture-into-the-bundesliga/a-70012361?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Newly promoted to Germany's football Bundesliga, Hamburg's St. Pauli club is set to light up the game with a passionate mix of music, creativity and social justice. |
Deutsche Welle;Botswana discovers world's second-largest diamond;https://www.dw.com/en/botswana-discovers-world-s-second-largest-diamond/a-70019901?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Botswana has discovered a 2,492-carat diamond at its Karowe Mine, making it the second-largest diamond ever found. President Mokgweetsi Masisi was quick to view and pose with the vast gemstone. |
Deutsche Welle;Healthy eating: Why teens gorge and older people peck;https://www.dw.com/en/healthy-eating-why-teens-gorge-and-older-people-peck/a-70017015?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | While young people can eat everything in sight, older people often lose appetite. It's important to know why to stay healthy at any age. |
Deutsche Welle;The most dangerous mosquito-borne diseases;https://www.dw.com/en/the-most-dangerous-mosquito-borne-diseases/a-45117067?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Malaria, dengue fever, zika — mosquitoes aren't just annoying when they buzz around your ear at night, they can also infect us with countless illnesses. On World Mosquito Day, here are some of the most dangerous ones. |
Deutsche Welle;What is mpox? How it spreads, can be prevented and treated;https://www.dw.com/en/what-is-mpox-how-it-spreads-can-be-prevented-and-treated/a-69951261?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Mpox is a viral infection with rising global cases. The WHO has declared it a global health emergency. Learn more as DW answers your questions. |
Deutsche Welle;Mpox outbreak: Are vaccine makers prepared?;https://www.dw.com/en/mpox-outbreak-are-vaccine-makers-prepared/a-69992535?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Africa faces a shortage of mpox vaccines as a serious new mpox variant spreads on the continent. High costs and a lack of regulatory approval mean there are no guarantees African nations will ever have enough. |
Deutsche Welle;Unorthodox cricket bowling has physicists spinning;https://www.dw.com/en/unorthodox-cricket-bowling-has-physicists-spinning/a-69994305?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Wind tunnel analysis revealed Sri Lankan ex-bowler Lasith Malinga's "round arm" technique used curveball physics as in football and baseball. |
Deutsche Welle;Stranded Starliner: What space does to an astronaut's body;https://www.dw.com/en/stranded-starliner-what-space-does-to-an-astronaut-s-body/a-69993144?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore had expected to be in space for days, not months. How will their physical and mental health cope? |
Deutsche Welle;Is Russia's war in Ukraine an environmental war crime?;https://www.dw.com/en/is-russia-s-war-in-ukraine-an-environmental-war-crime/a-69859017?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Ukraine wants to hold Russia accountable for the environmental destruction caused by its ongoing war. A war crime conviction for ecological damage at the International Criminal Court would be unprecedented. |
Deutsche Welle;How Ukraine’s advance in Russia threatens EU gas supply;https://www.dw.com/en/how-ukraine-s-advance-in-russia-threatens-eu-gas-supply/a-69951393?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf;2024-09-17 02:00:06 | Ukraine's military advance into Russia could disrupt gas supplies to the EU. Yet Russian gas won't be flowing through Ukraine for much longer. |
The Guardian;Middle East crisis live: Hezbollah says it will continue operations to ‘support Gaza’, after exploding pager attack;https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/18/middle-east-crisis-live-hezbollah-pager-explosion-lebanon-irael-iran-latest-updates;2024-09-18T08:50:37Z | US secretary of state Antony Blinken and his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty have met in Cairo. Blinken earlier met with Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Blinken will head from Cairo to Paris on Thursday for a meeting with the foreign ministers of France, Italy and Britain to discuss the Middle East and Ukraine and other issues, Reuters reports a state department official said. Blinken will also meet French President Emmanuel Macron, the official said. Blinken will not visit Israel on this trip to the Middle East, his tenth to the region since 7 October, and the first time he has not stopped in Tel Aviv as part of his intinerary. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, speaking in St Petersburg, has told the Russian media that “what happened [in Lebanon] yesterday requires an investigation and international attention to this issue.” The IDF has reported on its official Telegram channel that warning sirens are sounding in northern Israel. Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that medical crews have recovered ten bodies from areas north of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed that on Tuesday its air force struck “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites in five different areas in southern Lebanon,” and that additionally IDF artillery “struck in several areas in southern Lebanon.” In the statement the IDF said it “will continue to operate against the threat of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in order to defend the state of Israel.” Thousands of people in Israel and Lebanon have been displaced from their homes after months of Hezbollah and Israel exchanging fire over the UN-drawn blue line that separates the countries. The IDF’s claims have not been independently verified. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has condemned the pager detonations in Lebanon as a “terrorist operation”, which he described as “a form of mass killing” and a contravention of “international humanitarian law”. Iran’s Tasnim news agency quotes Nasser Kanaani saying: [Tuesday’s] terrorist operation in Lebanon was carried out as a continuation of the Zionist regime’s combined operations and their mercenary agents. It contravenes all moral and human principles, international law, especially international humanitarian law, and warrants international criminal prosecution, trial, and punishment. This combined terrorist act, which is, in fact, a form of mass killing, once again clearly proves that the Zionist regime, in addition to committing war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people, has placed regional and international peace and security in serious jeopardy. Accordingly, confronting the regime’s terrorist actions and the threats arising from it is an evident necessity, and the international community must act promptly to combat the impunity of the Zionist criminal officials. Iran’s government has promised support for Lebanon, and Al Jazeera reports that Iran’s Red Crescent has sent a medical delegation to Beirut to assist with the wounded. A shipment of medical aid from Iraq has also landed at Beirut International Airport. At least 200 of the nearly 3,000 people wounded in the attack are reported to be in critical condition. Lebanon’s culture minister Judge Mohammad Wissam Al-Mortad has this morning issued a statement on social media, saying “In our struggle with the Israeli enemy, there are two truths: that its evil is limitless, and that our victory is undoubtedly coming. What [Israel] did yesterday provides evidence after evidence of its hostility to humanity, and of the resistance’s ability to stand firm on the road to victory. Israel’s days are numbered. May God have mercy on the martyrs, heal the wounded, and comfort the hearts.” Local Palestinian media is reporting that a 17-year-old child has been killed by Israeli security forces near Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The claims have not been independently verified. Overnight Israel’s military announced the deaths of four soldiers. It takes the total number that Israel says have been killed in action since the start of the ground offensive in Gaza to 346. The claims have not been independently verified, and it has not been possible for journalists to verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict. Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will give a speech on Thursday, Reuters reports the group said in a statement on Wednesday. It follows pager detonations across Lebanon on Tuesday that killed nine people and injured about 3,000 others in what is widely regarded as an attack by Israel. Major airlines Lufthansa and Air France have announced suspensions of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and Beirut until Thursday as tensions in the region soared after pager explosions in Lebanon. German group Lufthansa said it was suspending all flights to Tel Aviv and Iran’s capital Tehran while French airline Air France suspended flights to the Israeli city and the Lebanese capital Beirut. “Due to the recent change in the security situation, the Lufthansa Group airlines have decided to suspend all connections to and from Tel Aviv (TLV) and Tehran (IKA) with immediate effect,” Lufthansa said in a statement. “This applies up to and including 19 September,” it said. “Due to the security situation at the destinations, Air France is suspending its connections from Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Beirut (Lebanon) and … Tel Aviv (Israel) until 19 September inclusive,” the French company said in statement sent to AFP. Air France said it would “evaluate daily the situation” in the Middle East and insisted that “the safety of our customers and crews is the absolute priority”. US secretary of state Antony Blinken reportedly landed in Cairo early Wednesday, as part of a planned trip to the region to attempt to secure an elusive ceasefire in Gaza. On his 10th trip to the Middle East since the start of the war in Gaza nearly a year ago, Blinken will address negotiation efforts with Egyptian officials, according to the US state department. Those efforts were further complicated on Wednesday by the wave of pager blasts in Lebanon. Blinken is expected to meet with Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and hold a press conference with foreign minister Badr Abdelatty, but will not be visiting Israel during this round of diplomacy. US officials say privately that they do not expect any breakthroughs at Wednesday’s talks in Cairo, but Blinken’s visit will aim to keep up the pressure campaign for a deal between Israel and Hamas. “He’ll be meeting with Egyptian officials about a number of things, but squarely on the agenda is how we get a proposal that we think would secure agreement from both parties,” said US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller. After the wave of explosions across Lebanon, the influx of so many casualties has reportedly overwhelmed hospitals in Hezbollah strongholds. At one hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an AFP correspondent saw people being treated in a car park on thin mattresses, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood. “In all my life I’ve never seen someone walking on the street … and then explode,” said Musa, a resident of the southern suburbs, requesting to be identified only by his first name. The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said. A son of Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar was also among the dead, a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Tehran’s ambassador in Beirut was wounded but his injuries were not serious, Iranian state media reported. In total, nine deaths have been reported with almost 3,000 injured. Hezbollah is known for using pagers to communicate because, unlike mobile phones, they can evade location-tracking and monitoring from Israeli intelligence. Yossi Melman, a co-author of Spies Against Armageddon, said “a lot of people in Hezbollah carried these pagers, not just top echelon commanders”. However, a security breach of this scale is seen by experts as hugely embarrassing and damaging to morale in the militant groups morale. Those wounded in the attack include Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, according to reports. “This would easily be the biggest counterintelligence failure that Hezbollah has had in decades,” said Jonathan Panikoff, the US government’s former deputy national intelligence officer on the Middle East. The Taiwanese manufacturer linked to pagers that exploded as part of a deadly attack against Hezbollah has said the devices were made by a company in Europe, as the militant group blamed Israel and vowed revenge attacks. Images of the pagers emerged in the aftermath with stickers on the back appearing consistent with pagers made by Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, according to analysis by Reuters. On Wednesday, the company’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang, denied it had made the pagers, saying they were manufactured by a company in Europe that had the right to use its brand. “The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,’ he said. “We are a responsible company. This is very embarrassing,” he said. Lebanon’s Hezbollah said early on Wednesday that it “will continue, as in all the past days, its blessed operations to support Gaza”, after a deadly wave of exploding pagers killed nine and injured thousands. “This path is ongoing and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday,” the group said in a statement issued on Telegram. Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, with the group pinning the blame for the blasts on Israel. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the wave of explosions, which came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas’s 7 October attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah along the country’s border with Lebanon. Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East. Hezbollah has said it “will continue” its operations to “support Gaza”, after a deadly wave of exploding pagers killed 9 people and wounded almost 3,000 more. “This path is ongoing and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday,” the group said in a statement issued on Telegram. Iran-backed Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the unprecedented security breach that saw thousands of pagers detonate across Lebanon. Israel’s military declined to comment on the blasts. More on this in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events. Among those killed on Tuesday was an 10-year-old girl, according to Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad. The latest casualty figures by officials include about 2,750 wounded, with most injuries to the face and hands. Those wounded include Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani. Hezbollah fighters in Syria were also injured in the attack, with several reportedly being treated in hospitals in Damascus. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Saberin News reported that some guards in Syria had also been killed. The pager explosions across Lebanon marked “an extremely concerning escalation,” the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said. The spokesperson for the secretary general of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric, noted the “extremely volatile” context. A Hezbollah official said the detonation of the pagers was the biggest security breach for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel. The blasts appeared to exploit the low-tech pagers that Hezbollah has adopted in order to prevent the targeted assassinations of its members. Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said the country was bracing for a major retaliation by Hezbollah. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel. “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” a statement said. The son of the Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar reportedly also died in the explosions, as did two sons of other prominent Hezbollah figures. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the blasts. The attack took place just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the 7 October Hamas attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah. Lebanon’s health ministry put hospitals across the country on “maximum alert” and instructed citizens to distance themselves from wireless communication devices. Schools in Lebanon will close on Wednesday. The US government said it “was not aware of this incident in advance”. The state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told a briefing that Washington was not involved and did not know who was responsible. He added it was “too early to say” how it would affect Gaza ceasefire talks. The Foreign Office has urged “calm heads and de-escalation”. An FCDO spokesperson said: “We continue to monitor the situation in Lebanon closely and the UK is working with diplomatic and humanitarian partners in the region. The civilian casualties following these explosions are deeply distressing. |
The Guardian;‘This is very embarrassing’: Middle East crisis takes a detour to an office park in Taiwan;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/18/this-is-very-embarrassing-middle-east-crisis-takes-a-detour-to-an-office-park-in-taiwan;2024-09-18T06:00:30Z | It was an unusual and alarming day at work for the staff and neighbours of Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese tech company in an office park in a leafy district half an hour outside Taipei. On the third floor of building “B”, dozens of media crowded the corridor outside Gold Apollo’s glass entrance, which was still festooned with leftover Lunar New Year decorations wishing for prosperity. Inside, police officers sat at a table with the company’s chief executive and founder, Hsu Ching-kuang. On a whiteboard behind him was written: AR-924, the model number of pagers that had simultaneously exploded half a world away in an attack on Hezbollah members in Lebanon on Tuesday. The blasts killed at least nine people, wounded 3,000 and further ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East. Coverage of the regional crisis shifted to Taiwan, and Gold Apollo in particular, after images of the pagers emerged in the aftermath with stickers on the back that appeared to be consistent with pagers made by the company. Earlier, Hsu found himself fronting international media to deny his company had made these pagers. He said they were made by a European company that had the right to use Gold Apollo’s branding. “This product was not ours,” he said. “We are a responsible company, this is very embarrassing.” Gold Apollo was founded in 1995 by Hsu and now employs 40 people. On Wednesday, its website was inaccessible but the Guardian couldn’t confirm when it went down. An archived version from April showed a dedicated page for the AR-924 model, which Gold Apollo described as a “configurable, flexible design”. As the morning stretched on, the crowd of press grew. A staffer stuck her head out of the door to promise a statement would come soon. Inside, a uniformed police officer flicked through a sheaf of papers with photos of the exploded pagers visible. Hsu then emerged to make another statement to cameras, again denying the Taiwan-based company had supplied the pagers, his voice shaking slightly. As the media crowded around Hsu a security guard wandered over, picking up the printed statements left on the floor by some reporters, photographing them for his manager downstairs, who was concerned about the cause of the unusual scene. Before long, the media spotlight moved on to Europe, leaving in its wake a confused-looking delivery driver who had showed up with a package for one of the Apollo Gold employees. |
The Guardian;Wednesday briefing: Why Labour seems to be walking the walk on the climate crisis;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/18/first-edition-labour-environment-policy;2024-09-18T05:38:43Z | Good morning. During their election campaign, Labour made it clear that the climate crisis would be a key focus should they make it into government. It looks as if they are making good on that promise. A number of senior cabinet ministers have come out this week, banging the drum for the government’s climate policies and reminding the public and the media that the climate crisis and its effects are at the top of their agenda. Yesterday, foreign secretary David Lammy made a stirring speech at Kew Gardens in London that presented the climate emergency as the foremost existential crisis facing humanity. On the other side of the capital, energy secretary Ed Miliband delivered his own speech at the Energy UK annual conference, stating that time is of the essence: “The faster we go”, he said, “the more secure we become”. The urgency and clarity is a marked change from the previous government, but does it go far enough? For today’s newsletter, I caught up with Guardian environment editor Fiona Harvey after Lammy’s speech, to understand Labour’s rejuvenated climate fight. That’s right after the headlines. Five big stories Labour | Keir Starmer has declared more free tickets and gifts than other major party leaders in recent times, with his total now topping £100,000 after recent support for his lifestyle from Labour donor Waheed Alli. Middle East | Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel after pagers used by its members exploded across Lebanon simultaneously, killing at least nine people and wounding almost 3,000. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The apparent sabotage attack followed months of targeted assassinations by Israel against senior Hezbollah leaders. Music | Sean “Diddy” Combs has been charged with sex trafficking and racketeering, according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday. Combs had been arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami. NHS | A fifth of GPs are using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT to help with tasks such as writing letters for their patients after appointments, according to a survey. Aid | UK aid spending will fall to its lowest level since 2007 unless the government takes urgent remedial action in the autumn budget, a group of more than 100 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the aid and humanitarian sector jointly warned on Wednesday. In depth: ‘Everyone is delighted the UK no longer has a government flirting with climate denial’ Labour’s approach to climate action could not be more different to previous governments. Both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss reneged on the work done by Boris Johnson and Theresa May on the climate crisis, opting instead to water down net zero policies and starve relevant departments of funding. Chris Stark, the former head of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said that Sunak had set Britain back because of his government’s failure to prioritise the issue in the way his predecessors in No 10 did. “There was a narrative that was really entrenched with the last government that net zero was a burden,” Fiona says. Sunak veiled his reluctance to prioritise tackling the climate crisis in the language of “pragmatism”, while rolling back, delaying or entirely abandoning pledges and insisting that the responsibility to do more lay with more polluting countries, such as China. Labour’s stance represents a complete reversal in attitude, tone and policy. “The government is being bold and unapologetic in its messaging and is making the case clearly that this issue is important to the whole world and it’s also important for the UK specifically,” Fiona says. “And if the country doesn’t play its part in [climate] leadership globally, then we are all doomed”. *** The challenges Ed Miliband has wasted no time in implementing his agenda. Within weeks of being in office as energy secretary, he lifted bans on onshore windfarms, withdrew government support for the country’s most controversial oil and gas projects, and drafted legislation to create a publicly owned power company. The government has also reappointed a climate envoy and installed, for the first time, a nature envoy. This week, Miliband vowed to take on “nimbys” – obliquely describing them “blockers, delayers and obstructionists” – to push through the rollout of wind turbines, solar farms and pylons. He argued that it was not just about the environment: these policies were highly important for “national security” and “economic justice”. The big question now is all about money. How are Miliband and Steve Reed, the environment secretary, going to fund all of their ambitious new plans? The urgency and need for swift change is hampered by a Treasury that does not want to spend. Keir Starmer has already told the public to expect “painful” decisions, and Rachel Reeves echoed that sentiment last week. “I’ve been really clear that the budget on 30 October will require difficult decisions on tax, on spending, and on welfare,” she said. Being fiscally restrained is the only path to stability, the chancellor insists, but eight leading economists wrote in a letter to the Financial Times that “under-investment is a central cause of the UK’s poor recent economic performance and the root of many of the problems we now face as a country”. Despite the passion and energy from certain corners of the cabinet, there is still real hesitation about how much to centre climate and environmental policies in Labour’s agenda. “They don’t see political mileage in it and they’re worried that lots of people are still wedded to an anti-environment attitude that was really amplified during the Truss and Sunak years,” Fiona says. “But putting real investment into this is crucial – how can you bring about this kind of low carbon future if you don’t invest?” *** The reaction The government’s shift has been welcomed by states, NGOs, activists and diplomats, especially at a time where right-wing populist parties that stand in the way of climate action are gaining power and popularity. In Germany and France, climate policies are becoming a focal point of far-right attacks – to the point where embattled centrist parties are dialling down their plans. Across Europe, the phenomenon has been dubbed the “greenlash”. “Everyone is delighted that the UK no longer has a government that is flirting with climate denial and waging a culture war over the planet. It is so important, especially given the challenges in climate diplomacy because so many progressive governments are in such difficult positions,” Fiona says. But again, without proper investment, climate action is almost impossible, Fiona adds. As Lammy looks to expand and repair the UK’s climate reputation, “we’ve got to get these things right domestically as well. If you can’t sort out sewage in your own rivers, no one’s going to believe that you can sort out the impact of the climate crisis in Chad”. For more from Fiona on Labour’s climate breakthrough this Thursday, sign up here to get Down to Earth, our enivronment newsletter What else we’ve been reading Inspired by new body horror The Substance, starring Demi Moore, four Guardian writers candidly detail their own ups and downs with body image. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters A decade on from the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, Libby Brooks spoke with young Scots who were 17 at the time of the referendum about their view on independence now. Nimo From fermenting them to fashioning them into a rustic-style sauce, you can’t move for under-ripe (or over-ripe) tomatoes, take some advice from Anna Berrill. Hannah This week’s TechScape newsletter (sign up here!) is on the latest claim by OpenAI: ChatGPT now is capable of “thoughts”. Chris Stokel-Walker assesses how possible this really is. Nimo I loved Sian Cain’s interview with Giancarlo Esposito, who has made his name playing fearsome baddies on screen but seems like a standup guy. And what a life he’s led! Hannah Sport Football | Aston Villa returned to the Champions League for the first time in 41 years and, winning 3-0 against Swiss side, Young Boys. Meanwhile, six-time champion Liverpool came back from a goal down for a 3-1 win against AC Milan in a rematch of the 2005 and 2007 finals. Scotland | The Scottish government has agreed a rescue deal for a scaled-down version of the 2026 Commonwealth Games to be hosted by Glasgow, after Australian authorities offered a “multimillion-pound commitment” to save the event. Tennis | Emma Raducanu battled to victory over the American Peyton Stearns in the opening round of the Korea Open. A topsy-turvy contest featuring 12 breaks of serve went the way of the former US Open champion after two hours and 43 minutes as she wrapped up a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) win in Seoul. The front pages The Guardian leads with “Hezbollah vows to strike back at Israel after deadly pager attacks”. The Financial Times reports “Eight killed as Hizbollah members’ low-tech pagers explode in Lebanon”, while the Times has “Exploding pagers wreak havoc among Hezbollah”. The Telegraph is similar with “Thousands of pager bombs rock Hezbollah”. The Mail says “‘Israel’s’ exploding pagers put Middle East on the brink”, while the Mirror characterises the story as “Exploding pager hell”. Today in Focus Should we believe Putin’s war talk? How discussions over long-range missiles led to war threats from Vladimir Putin. Dan Sabbagh reports. Cartoon of the day | Martin Rowson The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad According to new research from the University of Cambridge, swapping a pint for a two-third measure could be a boon for English drinkers’ health, lessening the impact of alcohol-related harm. Matt Beety of the Bear in Sheffield, which took part in the trial, said craft beer bars were already shifting mentality away from the pint. While some punters asked why they were not allowed pints, most went along with it, while drinkers who came to watch the football stuck to two drinks rather than return to the bar for a third. “When we think about tackling alcohol, we often think about affordability and advertising,” adds study leader Prof Dame Theresa Marteau. “We’re highlighting an additional intervention”. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply |
The Guardian;‘Success breeds success’: why Ireland’s cricket lovers are bullish about the future;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/18/ireland-cricket-future-win-england-stadium-deal-sport;2024-09-18T04:00:51Z | In cricket a century is a score of 100 or more runs by a batter in a single innings. In Irish cricket a century marks the gulf in time between the sport’s demonisation as a “foreign” import and its metamorphosis into an emblem of a new Ireland. In 1901, nationalists declared a “struggle to crush English pastimes” and for decades marginalised cricket and other imports such as football and rugby to promote Gaelic football and hurling and to elevate Irish identity. The Gaelic Athletic Association eventually lifted its edicts against non-native sport but for cricket the damage was done. Hugely popular with rich and poor in the 19th century, it limped into the 1990s stereotyped as a niche game for “west Brits” – posh Irish anglophiles. Last Sunday Clontarf cricket club, in north Dublin, showed a scene transformed. Ireland’s women’s team hosted – and beat – England in a game screened live on free-to-air television. Spectators, including migrants from south Asia, whooped and celebrated. Girls asked the winning players for autographs. “It shows the direction we’re heading in,” beamed the captain, Gaby Lewis. The victory sealed a golden run for the sport on and off the pitch. Last month the government agreed to build a 4,000-seat cricket stadium to provide a first, permanent home in time for the 2030 T20 men’s World Cup that Ireland will host with England and Scotland. “That’s a massive turning point for us,” said Richard Holdsworth, the high-performance director of the governing body Cricket Ireland. “Our players now travel the world and see the quality of facilities elsewhere. We need that here.” The new stadium and high-performance centre at the Sport Ireland campus in Abbotstown, west Dublin, will obviate the need to temporarily upgrade club grounds for international fixtures, a recurring, expensive rigmarole that drains finances and complicates fixtures. In June, Belfast city council approved a £25m multi-sport redevelopment project at the Stormont estate that will include a cricket pavilion, another boost to a sport organised on an all-island basis, spanning both sides of the border. Cricket Ireland also hopes to upgrade the grounds of Malahide cricket club, in north Dublin, to international level. The new infrastructure reflects growing visibility and political clout. New clubs are sprouting especially in Dublin and the surrounding Leinster province, which is home to many Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Afghans and others from places where cricket is popular. An estimated 60% of players in Leinster are from south Asia, says Holdsworth. “Cricket is in their blood. They’re hugely passionate about it.” Anand Kumar, who was watching the game in Clontarf, said about half of the players at his club in Malahide came from Asia. “Cricket is becoming more popular and competitive. You see the pitches getting better.” When Ireland plays India, Kumar roots for his native country while his teenage son cheers for Ireland. Schemes called Smash It and It’s Wicket have drawn children, especially girls, who have followed the feats of players such as Lewis, Orla Prendergast and Amy Hunter. “People can see our top players in action and see they are relatable. It’s not the old, stuffy image with cucumber sandwiches,” said Brian MacNeice, the chair of Cricket Ireland. “Success breeds success.” Sunday’s dramatic victory – the first time the Irish women’s team has beaten England in the Twenty20 format – followed a defeat the previous day and tied a two-game series. At Stormont last month the Irish women completed a 2-0 series win over Sri Lanka, the Asia Cup champions. Ireland’s men’s notched their second ever victory in a Test match – the game’s longest format – in July when they beat Zimbabwe. Stella Downes, Cricket Ireland’s president, remembers humbler times for the national team. “To beat an English county team was all we aspired to. When we beat Middlesex (in 1997) we dined out on that for years.” Several factors contributed to the turnaround. The economy boomed, drawing people from abroad. And the men’s team scored famous wins. At their inaugural World Cup in 2007 the team knocked out Pakistan and made it to the Super Eight stage, prompting a rapturous homecoming. They scored another shock by beating England at the 2011 World Cup. Such triumphs were sporadic but made Ireland a darling of India’s cricket fans, creating opportunity for Irish trade and branding, said Holdsworth. “The government started to realise the global reach.” Ireland became a full-member of the International Cricket Council in 2017, paving regular encounters with top-notch teams. In Ireland cricket still trails Gaelic football, hurling, soccer and rugby and it is a minnow at international level – by some estimates 30 times smaller than English cricket. Talent has drifted abroad. Eoin Morgan, who led England to World Cup glory in 2019, is from Dublin. But Downes is bullish about the future. The new stadium, bigger budgets, professional contracts, sponsorship, television deals – all are enticements to a game no longer deemed foreign but global, she says. “You can travel the world playing cricket.” |
The Guardian;Cookathons, speechathons and skipathons: the rapid rise of obscure world record attempts in west Africa;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/18/west-african-boom-obscure-guinness-world-record-attempts;2024-09-18T04:00:50Z | In 2008, two years after Ebenezer Smith graduated from high school with no means to go on to university, he ventured into Ghana’s culinary industry hoping to become a world-renowned chef. For years, life moved at a slower pace than he had envisioned. So last October, he quit his job as an Accra beach resort chef earning about 1,800 cedis (£88) a month to pursue a new dream: dislodging 27-year-old Nigerian chief Hilda Baci as the world record-holder for the longest cooking marathon. Smith, a 40-year-old father of two, told the Guardian that watching Baci set the record in August last year “boosted my confidence”. “When I witnessed [her marathon], I said I’m going to take this challenge and make my society, my community and my nation proud,” he said. Baci’s 93-hour, 11-minute stint in August 2023 broke a record set four years before. Her well-publicised attempt was supported by celebrities and politicians in her home nation of 200 million people. It also garnered millions of social media impressions and slowed the Guinness World Records (GWR) website for days on end as thousands of people went online to check her progress. Mark McKinley, director of Central Record Services at GWR, which released its 2025 edition this month to mark its 70th anniversary next year, said engagement reached historic levels. It was “in a way, a record for the Guinness World Records”, he said. “[It’s] the Hilda Baci effect … she made attempting a record accessible,” he added. Regional record attempts have risen sharply in the last year and a half. Between 2013 and 2022 there were about 7,000 applications from west Africa to GWR, representing 1% of the global tally. Since 2023 roughly the same number of applications have been received, constituting about 8% of the global total. In the 1990s, the Guinness Book of Records, as it was known then, was popular in middle-class west African households. Baci’s record helped reintroduce it to young adults in the age of TikTok. The surge in attempts is also partly because achieving a record is seen as a shortcut to fame and career advancement in a region stewing in record unemployment. Although record-breakers are not paid, Baci gained a series of endorsement deals and a congratulatory message from Nigeria’s vice-president. “It is a great platform for international recognition and it projects destinies,” said 34-year-old Accra-based actor Adu Safowaah, who is awaiting verification of her 130-hour speechathon in February. The marathon genre has proven particularly popular: a Cameroonian blogger went temporarily blind during a wailing marathon; a Lagos masseuse collapsed in the middle of a massage endurance attempt; and a kissing marathon was banned by authorities in Ekiti in south-west Nigeria. Nigeria and Ghana together account for 122 of the 139 applications in the cooking marathon category since Baci’s historic quest. Philip Solomon, Dunsin Dubem and Gbenga Ezekiel, three Nigerian teenagers from the south-west town of Akure, are among those featured in the 2025 edition for setting skipping records. The trio represented their schools at a 2021 state championship and hope to wear Nigeria’s colours at the Olympics if the sport is approved for inclusion. “Today we hold six world records, and that can mean six gold medals,” said Dubem. Baci says she feels fulfilled knowing her record has helped many others “pursue their dreams and validate their aspirations”. “The difficulty involved in breaking records makes me proud of the community that has formed around these achievements,” she said. In July, Smith called a press conference claiming to have cooked nonstop for 802 hours and 25 minutes, showing a certificate purportedly issued by GWR. On the sidelines, a local TV channel offered him a talkshow on dieting. His big break seemed to have finally come. Except that Smith’s attempt was one of thousands to commence without official approval. His certificate had been designed using photos of those presented to Baci and Alan Fisher, the Japan-based Irish chef who now holds the cookathon record, as a template. A few days later, Smith knelt to apologise in a video on Facebook after his claims were debunked. Then the police arrested him. Since then, the chef says he’s faced “trauma and stigma” as no one is willing to hire him. But he has not ruled out trying to emulate Baci again. “I brought reproach to my nation and Guinness,” he said. “If I get a genuine way, I will bring glory to the nation to cancel out the shame and the bad name.” |
The Guardian;Pro-Palestinian protester acquitted over ‘coconut’ placard has ‘no regrets’;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/18/pro-palestinian-protester-acquitted-over-coconut-placard-has-no-regrets;2024-09-18T04:00:50Z | A teacher who was acquitted of a racially aggravated public order offence after she carried a placard depicting Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts said she has no regrets and would continue to use the term in future rallies. In her first interview since she was found not guilty at Westminster magistrates court last Friday, Marieha Hussain, 37, said there was a lack of cultural understanding and awareness of the term “coconut” and how it is used by diverse communities. The mother of two, who is nine months pregnant, described how her trial has had an immense impact on her life. She said she lost her job, had to move home and was unable to recognise the early signs of her pregnancy. Speaking to the Guardian, the psychology teacher described attending a pro-Palestine march in November last year. “From that day to this very day I have had no regret about making that placard, taking it out and defending it,” she said. In particular, Hussain said those who found the term offensive did not understand it, adding: “It’s really not their term, it’s not their language,” she said. “They didn’t use it, know it, hear it, understand it growing up and so as an adult they actually don’t have any understanding of what this word really means and they’ve taken it [and] kind of hijacked it and decided what they think it means and are prosecuting it. “This is what we call targeting ethnic minorities and their intra-communal language,” Hussain added. In the trial last week, the prosecution claimed “coconut” was a well-known racial slur. “[It has] a very clear meaning – you may be brown on the outside, but you are white on the inside,” said the prosecutor, Jonathan Bryan. “In other words, you’re a ‘race traitor’ – you’re less brown or black than you should be.” However, Hussain argued “coconut” was “common language, particularly in our culture” and, in reference to the placard, a form of political critique. “It’s something we just grew up with,” she said. “It was flung around easily … I remember my father calling me a coconut in my teen years.” This was not the first time the term “coconut” has come before the courts in the UK. In 2009, a councillor was convicted of racial harassment for using the term to describe a councillor from a different party. However, on Friday, the district judge, VanessaLloyd, ruled the placard was “part of the genre of political satire” and the prosecution had “not proved to a criminal standard that it was abusive”. Describing her decision to depict Braverman and Sunak as “coconuts”, Hussain said her intentions were to critique the politicians for creating and supporting policies which, she said, disproportionately affected minority communities. At the time, Braverman was describing the pro-Palestine protests as “hate marches”. “I was trying to show that Sunak and Braverman hold the highest offices in our country, they’ve got so much power and influence,” Hussain said. “Calling [pro-Palestine protests] ‘hate marches’, the Rwanda policy, the comments about Pakistani men. That fed into a really dangerous rhetoric that is actually untrue. “I was trying to highlight actually their racism and their discrimination against an ethnic minority and vulnerable groups,” she added. Following her acquittal, Hussain said the case and the subsequent media attention has had a substantial impact on her life. In particular, Hussain described feeling “really panicked” after family photos were shared online and details of her family were revealed in tabloid newspapers. She criticised the conduct of the police during the case as “questionable and confusing”. For instance, Hussain said several police officers saw the coconut placard during the march in November but “nobody said anything”. It was only after a photograph of Hussain holding the placard was posted online that she was made aware of police interest. Hussain described the police interview as “one of the most distressing experiences of my life”. She said it was “hostile” and “aggressive”, and said she was yelled at by the detective who was interviewing her. In response to the claims, the Metropolitan police said it received an email from Hussain’s solicitor following the interview but a line manager found no issues with the interviewing officer’s conduct and that he did not shout or yell. They said no formal complaints have been made about the matter. When asked whether she would use a similar coconut placard again at a future pro-Palestine rally, Hussain said: “Yes. It’s political satire, it’s protected speech and I have absolutely no reason not to carry that placard around again. “It’s been explained what it is and what it means,” she said. “The most important thing is that, at its highest level, political critique is a really important element of addressing our politicians and its protected speech. I’ve been acquitted. It’s absolutely completely legal for me to carry that placard around.” Now that the trial is over, Hussain said she is focused on her pregnancy and family but is unsure of her next steps. “I’ve got this wider issue of free speech and Palestine, I’m really passionate about that so I don’t know what the future holds,” she said. “I feel that all doors are open for me now.” A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Our prosecutors reviewed this case carefully and concluded there was enough evidence for it to be presented to a court. “The defendant has been found not guilty and we respect the judge’s decision.” |
The Guardian;‘If they don’t die, our infantry will’: Ukraine’s pivotal battle for Donetsk;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/18/if-they-dont-die-our-infantry-will-ukraines-pivotal-battle-for-donetsk;2024-09-18T04:00:47Z | The Russian soldiers sent to storm Ukrainian positions arrived at a graveyard. Around them was the ruined village of Mykhailivka. From above, Ukrainian spy drones watched. One soldier vanished under a tree. Another jogged towards a shell-walloped cottage. Back at a control observation centre, Maj Oleksandr Fanagey muttered a few words. Seconds later, a Ukrainian kamikaze drone hit a moving Russian. A live video stream showed that he survived but his left leg was injured. The soldier bottom-shuffled towards a patch of grass and tried to pull a bandage from a green backpack. “He will die for sure,” Fanagey predicted. “The enemy doesn’t bother evacuating its wounded.” Late last month, Russian forward units seized a mine just outside Mykhailivka, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk oblast. Their mini-advance was part of a sweeping Russian offensive. It began in February with the capture of Avdiivika. Its goal: to expand a narrow salient deep into Ukrainian territory and overrun the city of Pokrovsk, 11 miles (18km) away. Pokrovsk is a logistics base and major transport hub for Ukraine’s armed forces. Multiple road and rail lines intersect here. Without it, Kyiv will struggle to move troops, food and ammunition to other parts of an overstretched frontline – to the embattled city of Toretsk, farther east, for example, and to Kurakhove, to the south. The city’s fate is bound up with that of Donetsk province as a whole. A bloody battle looms. Russian troops are a mere six miles away. There is continual noise from incoming and outgoing shells. Last week, Russian warplanes smashed bridges in and around the city, setting the stage for a future frontal attack. One bust bridge had linked the T0504 highway with the neighbouring town of Myrnohrad. Engineers in orange jackets were busy building an alternative dirt route. Another enemy bomb clipped the bridge above Pokrovsk’s train station, now closed and boarded up along with supermarkets, restaurants and banks. Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad were once home to 100,000 people. Most but not all have now fled, with sections of the city spookily empty. Bombs have hit many central buildings, including the office of Ukraine’s pension fund. The Russians are pressing from two directions. They swallowed up the town of Novohrodivka – population 18,000 – when its Ukrainian defenders retreated last week, seemingly without much of a fight. Russian forces are also moving forward from the south-east and from Ukrainsk, which fell a few days ago. Beyond a patch of forest and a railway track from Mykhailivka is the Ukrainian-held town of Selydove. The Kremlin’s creeping progress comes at a significant human cost. Sitting in front of a bank of monitors, Fanagey, the artillery commander of the national guard’s 15th brigade, zoomed in on grisly images. Six dead Russians could be seen near a row of old graves marked with blue wooden crosses. Another soldier, bloated and missing a head, lay in a vegetable patch. “The whole village is a cemetery for them,” the major said. A dozen bodies could be seen in an anti-tank ditch. Around them was the debris of war: a machine gun, helmets, provisions. The gully leads from Mykhailivka’s abandoned mine – its pit wheel head still intact – to an avenue of shattered houses. Artillery strikes have dinted yellow fields. “Over the last two weeks Russia’s momentum has nearly stopped. We have slowed down their advance. They are moving forward but with less potential,” Fanagey said. His comments confirm – in this sector at least – claims by Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, that Russia’s assault on Pokrovsk has weakened. In August, Syrskyi launched a surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk oblast. This has helped relieve pressure on other parts of the frontline, including the Zaporizhzhia region and neighbouring Kherson. Moscow had pulled only “a few troops” from the Pokrovsk area, the major said. He added: “They have a huge collection of forces.” The Russians have changed tactics. These days they rarely use armoured vehicles in a battlefield saturated with drones. Instead, small groups of 10 to 15 soldiers sneak forward on foot, day and night, the commander said, using different paths. If undetected, they assemble at a rendezvous point and try to infiltrate Ukrainian lines. “It’s quantity with the Russians, not quality. We see so many ‘meat attacks’,” Fanagey said. Two weeks ago the Russians sent a mechanised column into Mykhailivka, consisting of a Soviet-era T-72 tank and two infantry fighting vehicles. Ukrainian soldiers opened fire. The tank’s crew – driver, gunner and mechanic – bailed out and hid in some shrubs. A drone finished them off. The Ukrainians drove away in the tank. “It’s been a long time since we got a working armed vehicle from the enemy,” said Stanislav, the major’s deputy. According to Stanislav, Russia is able to advance because its army is much bigger. “We don’t have enough ammo. For every one shell we fire, they fire seven. Or more. We lack infantry,” he admitted. “The situation is a bit better than six months ago [when the US Congress blocked deliveries of weapons]. But with this tempo of fighting it isn’t enough. Russia is a big country. It has money and resources. It funds its military with oil and gas.” The battle for Pokrovsk is very likely to be the culmination of Moscow’s military campaign this year. A decade ago, Russian forces covertly seized the eastern regional capitals of Donetsk and Luhansk. Vladimir Putin’s political and strategic objective is to capture the whole of Donetsk oblast, as well as three other Ukrainian provinces he “annexed” in 2022. Stanislav said taking Pokrovsk would not be easy for the Russians. “We can hold it,” he said. About 18,000 people in Pokrovsk have ignored official calls to evacuate. If Russian forces occupy the city they will be a short drive from the oblast’s administrative borders and the road to Dnipro. From Pokrovsk they would be able to menace and possibly cut off a chain of Ukrainian garrison cities to the north: Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Already they are bombarding the highway between Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka. Vitalii Milovidov, the 15th brigade’s press officer, said the west was party to blame for Ukraine’s step-by-step reversals in 2024. He cited White House restrictions on the use of US-suppled long-range weapons – the subject of discussions last week in Washington between Joe Biden and Keir Starmer. Milovidov said that if deep strikes were permitted, Ukraine could hit weapons dumps and aerodromes used by Russia in its grinding assault on Ukraine’s east. “It will make enemy logistics more difficult. They will have to move everything 250-300km back from the frontline,” he noted. “If we had got a green light earlier, our military situation would be different. There would be no advance on Pokrovsk.” Fanagey said he was optimistic Ukraine could still win, despite the daunting size of its opponent. He cited the accurate work of his experienced artillery and drone units, as well as the contribution made by neighbouring brigades. “We’ve had three years of war. If we receive enough weapons, victory is absolutely possible.” And what about Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons? “He’s lying,” the commander said cheerfully. Back in Mykhailivka, puffs of grey smoke rose into a clear blue sky. A Ukrainian shell had hit a cottage. The building burned furiously. None of the village’s inhabitants – 1,300 of them, once – remain. The only souls are Russian intruders. Did the commander feel remorse for killing so many of them? “No. They are the enemy, here to take our land. If they don’t die, our infantry will die instead. I never thought I would be glad to kill someone, but I hate them.” |
The Guardian;Stamps, sticks and stories: looking for traces of baseball in North Korea;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/18/baseball-history-north-korea;2024-09-18T00:45:10Z | How do you find evidence that people are still playing – or still remember – a once-loved sport? Earlier this year, when a baseball team called the Challengers, made up of young North Korean defectors, toured the US, American and Korean media reported that baseball was “unheard of” in the North. But there are traces of baseball, that most American of sports, in schoolyard games, a dusty field with bases and a pitcher’s mound, and stories told by defectors to the South. James Banfill, a member of the American Society of Baseball research, says there is evidence that the game is still played in limited forms. Certainly it is still remembered in a country that has proclaimed itself America’s “biggest enemy”. Preserving baseball’s history – and present – is important, he says. Some day, North Koreans may be looking for clues about who they were, or what it meant to be Korean, before life under a dictatorship. “If there’s some future North Korean baseball fan, they can look back at their own history and say, well, we did have history here, you know?” Controlling people through culture The first known game of baseball in Korea was in 1894, in Seoul, 50 years before the country’s division into North and South, and was likely spread to the north of the country by American missionaries, says Banfill. In 1913, one missionary wrote that the hardest part of organising games was convincing high school students to overcome their fear of playing catcher – northern Korean teenagers had a reputation for being skilled rock throwers. By the 1920s, it was being played in schools, government ministries, businesses and the military. In the 1970s, decades after division, exhibition games were played in the North against the Cubans. Kim Dong-Su, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, defected from the North in 2009, when he was a student. He works as a journalist in South Korea, and says that he first heard about baseball through his grandfather – but that before defecting, he had never seen a baseball ball. When Kim was a child in the 1990s, he and his grandfather were watching a movie set in the 1930s, in which the Japanese antagonists wore strange gloves and carried wooden bats, which they used during street fights with Koreans. Korea was ruled by Japan as a colony from 1910 to 1945. When Kim asked what the odd props were, his grandfather said: “We used to play that game back when I was younger, and I used to play it with the Japanese.” Kim believes it is Japan’s love of baseball, not America’s, that is responsible for its current lack of popularity in the North. “Japan is a worse enemy than America,” he says. As children, if Kim and his friends were seen playing sports that resembled baseball, they would have been in a lot of trouble, Kim said, because of its associations with Japan. “North Korea controls its people through its culture.” ‘A friendly country that enjoys a wide range of sports’ Banfill has spoken to people who have said it is still played in the military, and there are women’s softball teams – a game similar to baseball – who play on a dedicated softball field in Pyongyang. The World Baseball Softball Confederation lists DPR Korea as a member of the organisation – a membership confirmed in an email to the Guardian. And then there are the stamps, issued between 2000 and 2009, that depict baseball. But they aren’t necessarily proof. Banfill says they likely “reflect a wider interest in sports in general”. He points out that North Korea made stamps commemorating Diana Spencer’s marriage to Prince Charles in 1981. Kim says that because the stamps were issued for the World Stamp expo, he thinks they were just part of North Korea’s efforts to present itself internationally as “a friendly country that enjoys a wide range of sports”. Nobody his age plays baseball, he says, and there are many millennial and Gen-Z North Koreans who have never heard of it. The game is also depicted in a North Korean film: Gwangju Calls Out. Released in 1985 and still aired today, it features a baseball game played between Japanese and Korean high schoolers. “Both sides are supported by cheerleaders displaying their national costumes – kimonos for Japanese and hanbok for Koreans,” Banfill writes. “The game is politicised when a Japanese official asks the home plate umpire to call a play in favour of the Japanese.” It is also played in an episode of the long-running North Korean cartoon Clever Raccoon Dogs and, again, has a political message: the match is between a team of small animals – much like the small but mighty image North Korea’s regime seeks to project – and a team made up of large ones. It’s cats, dogs, turtles and pigs versus elephants, rhinos and giraffes. Banfill is not the first to find evidence that some people in the North are preserving the game in one way or another. In 2017, Curtis Melvin, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, noticed a dusty diamond-shaped field with four bases and a pitcher’s mound on satellite imagery – and it seemed to have been recently used, he told the Wall Street Journal, which reported that baseball teams have been shown on television competing in North Korea’s northern city of Nampo as recently as 2014. Lee Hae-young, who left North Korea for the South in 1996, told the WSJ that he remembered playing a baseball-like game as a child, using a wooden stick or tree branch. It was called “bba-ru” – a name that sounds like American baseball legend Babe Ruth. |
The Guardian;‘Utter disillusionment’: Kashmir sees first election since 2014 as chance to reject Modi;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/18/kashmir-election-modi-india;2024-09-17T23:11:10Z | For the first time in almost 40 years, Bashir Ahmad Thokar, a 75-year-old apple farmer, cannot wait to cast his vote. In the Himalayan valleys and mountains of the Indian region of Kashmir, elections have long been deemed a tainted affair, marred by rigging, boycotts and violence. But as Kashmiris go to the polls on Wednesday to vote for their first regional assembly in a decade, this time there has been a palpable buzz. “This is the first time since 1987 that the people of Kashmir are excited about the elections,” says Thokar. The election, which will continue in phases until 1 October, is being described as the most significant in the region for years. It is not only the first time since 2014 that Kashmiris will be able to vote for their own regional representatives, but is also the first vote since the region was stripped of its statehood by prime minister Narendra Modi. It was August 2019 that Modi unilaterally revoked Article 370 – which had given Kashmir its own special form of autonomy since independence – and brought it under the complete control of the central government. A lengthy and oppressive crackdown followed. Thousands of additional troops were brought in; hundreds, including prominent politicians, were jailed; and the internet was cut for over 18 months, the longest blackout ever recorded. For Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), taking full control of Kashmir had been a central pledge of their Hindu nationalist agenda for years, and it was celebrated by many in the establishment. But while Kashmiris on the ground opposed the move, few were able to protest or openly criticise it. Anyone seen to be involved in dissent was routinely harassed and detained by police, often under draconian anti-terrorism laws, and the freedom of the local press was systematically crushed, with many journalists among those detained. ‘A crossroads in our history’ Voters in the state described the upcoming polls as an opportunity to finally get back their voice, after years of having their democratic rights silenced. The Modi government had resisted holding the polls but it was finally mandated by the supreme court earlier this year, with a September deadline. The BJP had initially claimed they would “sweep” the election yet widespread resentment has left them contesting less than a third of the 90 assembly seats, mostly focused in the only Hindu-majority area of Jammu, and they are expected to win fewer than in the 2014 polls. “This election is important because there is utter disillusionment amongst people,” said Iltija Mufti, daughter of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, whose party was once in alliance with the BJP. “We are at a crossroads in our history, people have not felt such deep alienation before. They feel disempowered and dispossessed.” Historically, Kashmiris have reason to be wary of local elections. The region has been disputed between India and Pakistan since 1947, when the two countries gained their independence, and three wars have been fought over it. Each side currently governs part of it while China controls a portion in the east. It was in 1987 that the Indian government, fearful of the sensitive region falling into the hands of those sympathetic to Pakistan, was accused of meddling in Kashmir’s elections to prevent pro-independence candidates from taking power. In response, a coalition of popular parties boycotted the elections. Several leaders crossed the border into Pakistan, where they went on to launch an armed revolt against India. It plunged the region into waves of violence and militancy from the 1990s onwards that continue to this day. This time, however, the election has not been met with calls for boycotts, even by separatist and terrorist outfits. Instead, candidates from a multitude of parties, including those who favour greater independence for Kashmir, are taking part and many believe it could be the highest turnout in years. Political rallies have been packed, with many people turning up to demand that family members detained under authoritarian laws since 2019’s crackdown are released. New Delhi has been projecting the enthusiasm as a vindication of their policies and an indication that Kashmiris have given up their aspiration for independence. “The way people are coming forward in huge numbers, aspiring to cast their vote, speaks about the success of India’s democracy and India’s constitution,” said Nirmal Singh, senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister of the region. “We have been able to finish terrorism … What could not be done in seventy years has been achieved in the last five years under the vision of prime minister Narendra Modi.” A vote against Modi’s ‘assault on Kashmiris’ Yet on the ground in the villages and towns, another narrative has been playing out. Many fear that the Modi government is trying to change the Muslim-majority demography of Kashmir, after changes brought in after 2019 allowed outsiders to buy property and invest in the region for the first time. Many also argue that the promised investment and prosperity have yet to materialise, with opponents alleging unemployment remains at a 45-year-high. The Modi government’s claims to have crushed the militancy and brought peace to the region have been undermined by a recent surge in attacks – carried out by a new tranche of highly trained militants purportedly from Pakistan – which have killed almost 200 security personnel and over 350 civilians since 2020. “On the one hand, Modi has been treating the higher voter turnout as a referendum for his decisions of 2019, but on the other hand, local parties also see it as a vote against his policies,” says Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a Kashmiri political analyst. “People feel that by voting they may finally be able to put up some barriers to the onslaught that has been unleashed upon them since 2019.” Mohammad Rafiq, 45, a shopkeeper in the town of Bijbehara, was among those intending to vote for the first time, to send a direct message to the Modi government. In the autumn of 1993, his brother was among the 51 civilians who were killed by India’s border security force after they opened fire on protesters. “When I saw the bloodied body of my brother, I promised that day to myself that I would never participate in these sham elections,” said Rafiq. “But now there is such a major assault on our identity that I am going to vote to keep the BJP away.” Voters appear to be rejecting the traditional parties, some of whom once aligned with the BJP, in favour of independent candidates or those aligned with groups that have been critical of New Delhi’s Kashmir policies. Analysts believe the BJP has allowed this flurry of independent candidates in a bid to undermine support for the opposition coalition, which includes India’s main opposition Congress party and Kashmir’s oldest regional party, National Conference. One of the most prominent independent voices has been Abdul Rashid Sheikh – popularly known as Engineer Rashid – a firebrand politician who had been held in Delhi’s Tihar jail since August 2019 on terror-funding charges. He already won a parliamentary seat, contested from behind bars, during the national elections in June and is now fielding several independent candidates in the assembly polls. After the courts granted him bail in September, thousands of supporters have thronged to his rallies. “People are coming out in huge numbers to protest against Modi’s policies. Their vote is against BJP’s assault on Kashmiris,” said Rashid, who is not only promising to get Kashmir’s autonomy restored but to “solve the Kashmir issue” once and for all. Speaking at an election rally on the weekend, Modi boasted that “the changes in the region in the last decade are nothing short of a dream”. Yet at the surrounding village gatherings and political meetings, the same fiery slogans raised by Kashmiris for years are once again being heard. In response to the rallying cries of “hum kya chaahte?” [What do we want?], there is just one response: “Azadi” [freedom]”. |
The Guardian;Lebanon explosions ‘an extremely concerning escalation’, says UN official, as Hezbollah threatens retaliation – as it happened;https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/17/middle-east-crisis-live-netanyahu-expands-gaza-war-aims-blinken-heads-to-egypt;2024-09-17T22:07:56Z | Pagers used by hundreds of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding thousands in a dramatic and unprecedented attack at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East. Among those killed was an 10-year-old girl, according to Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad. The latest casualty figures by officials include about 2,750 wounded, with most injuries to the face and hands. Those wounded include Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani. Hezbollah fighters in Syria were also injured in the attack, with several reportedly being treated in hospitals in Damascus. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Saberin News reported that some guards in Syria had also been killed. The pager explosions across Lebanon marked “an extremely concerning escalation,” the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said. The spokesperson for the secretary general of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric, noted the “extremely volatile” context. A Hezbollah official said the detonation of the pagers was the biggest security breach for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel. The blasts appeared to exploit the low-tech pagers that Hezbollah has adopted in order to prevent the targeted assassinations of its members. Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said the country was bracing for a major retaliation by Hezbollah. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel. “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” a statement said. The son of the Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar reportedly also died in the explosions, as did two sons of other prominent Hezbollah figures. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the blasts. The attack took place just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the 7 October Hamas attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah. Lebanon’s health ministry put hospitals across the country on “maximum alert” and instructed citizens to distance themselves from wireless communication devices. Schools in Lebanon will close on Wednesday. The US government said it “was not aware of this incident in advance”. The state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told a briefing that Washington was not involved and did not know who was responsible. He added it was “too early to say” how it would affect Gaza ceasefire talks. Israel’s domestic security agency said it had foiled a plot by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior Israeli defence official in the coming days. The Shin Bet agency said it had seized an explosive device attached to a remote detonation system, using a mobile phone and a camera, that Hezbollah had planned to operate from Lebanon. Israeli tanks fired on an aid convoy on a mission to northern Gaza at the weekend, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said. Shots were fired from two Israeli tanks near the WHO-led convoy, he said, adding that nobody was hurt during the incident. Gaza’s health ministry has identified 34,344 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks in the territory, publishing a list of names, ages, gender and ID numbers that cover more than 80% of those who have been killed in the war so far. At least 41,252 Palestinian people have been killed and 95,497 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday. The Palestinian education ministry said 11,001 students – from schools and universities – have been killed and 17,772 injured in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has urged for more pressure on Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza, warning that every day that passes without a deal risks the lives of hostages and civilians – as well as a regional war breaking out. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is reportedly contemplating dismissing his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and replacing him with Gideon Saar, a member of the opposition and the New Hope party leader. We’re now closing this blog. You can read all our latest reporting here: Hezbollah vows retaliation after deadly pager explosions Analysis: attack is another blow for US peace hopes Analysis: if caused by Mossad, explosions are big escalation At a glance: what we know so far Most of the injuries from Tuesday’s pager explosions in Lebanon have been to the face and hands. Most “appear to be to the face and especially to the eyes, and also the hand with some amputations, whether it’s in the hands or the fingers,” Lebanon’s public health minister Firass Abiad told the BBC. The “vast majority” presenting to emergency rooms are in civilian clothes, Abiad told the broadcaster, adding that this makes it “very difficult to discern whether they belong to a certain entity like Hezbollah or others”. He added: But we are seeing among them people who are old or people who are very young, like the child who unfortunately died, and there are some of them who are health care workers. Abiad said the incident was a “major escalation at a time when everybody was hoping that things were moving to a kind of cessation of hostilities or some kind of ceasefire”, adding that Israel was the “obvious culprit”. There has been no comment from the Israeli military on the blast. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Israeli tanks fired on an aid convoy on a mission to northern Gaza at the weekend. Posting on X, he wrote that a WHO-led convoy encountered two Israeli tanks while on the way back from a mission last Saturday. Shots were fired from the tanks near the convoy, he said, adding that the convoy had received clearance. Nobody was hurt during the incident, he said. “This is unacceptable,” he said, noting that humanitarian workers in Gaza deliver critical aid “amid extreme danger and life-threatening conditions”. He added: The minimum they deserve for their service is safety. The deconfliction mechanism needs to be adhered to. Ceasefire! The airline Lufthansa announced it is suspending all flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran through to Thursday, citing the “recent change in the security situation”. A statement by Lufthansa reads: During this period, the Israeli and Iranian airspace will also be bypassed by all Lufthansa Group Airlines. It added that it was closely monitoring the situation and “will assess it further in the coming days”. Hamas has condemned the series of pager explosions across Lebanon and Syria in a statement. The statement reads: We appreciate the struggle and sacrifices of our brothers in Hezbollah, and their insistence on continuing to support and back our Palestinian people in Gaza, and we affirm our full solidarity with the Lebanese people and our brothers in Hezbollah. The UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said the pager explosions across the country marked “an extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context.” In a statement, she urged “all concerned actors to refrain from any further action, or bellicose rhetoric, which could trigger a wider conflagration that nobody can afford”. Hennis-Plasschaert "underlines the urgency of restoring calm and calls on all concerned actors to prioritize stability as paramount,” the statement continues, concluding that “too much is at stake to do anything less.” Pagers used by hundreds of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding thousands in a dramatic and unprecedented attack at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East. Here’s what we know so far: At least nine people were killed in the attack in Lebanon, officials said. Among those killed was an 10-year-old girl, according to Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad. The latest casualty figures by officials include about 2,750 wounded. Those wounded in the attack include Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani. Hezbollah fighters in Syria were also injured in the attack, with several reportedly being treated in hospitals in Damascus. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Saberin News reported that some guards in Syria had also been killed. A Hezbollah official said the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel. The blasts appeared to exploit the low-tech pagers that Hezbollah has adopted in order to prevent the targeted assassinations of its members. The pagers were reportedly a new brand. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel. Hezbollah said two of its fighters were among the dead and threatened a “just punishment” for Israel. “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” the group said. The son of the Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar reportedly also died in the explosions, as did two sons of other prominent Hezbollah figures. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the blasts. The attack took place just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the 7 October Hamas attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah. The attack followed months of targeted assassinations by Israel against senior Hezbollah leaders. Lebanon’s health ministry put hospitals across the country on “maximum alert” and instructed citizens to distance themselves from wireless communication devices. Hezbollah maintains its own communication network separate from the rest of Lebanon. It also comes as US officials try to de-escalate tensions between the two sides, and could derail US efforts to prevent Iran from retaliating against Israel for the July bombing in Tehran that killed the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. The US said it “was not aware of this incident in advance”. A US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told a briefing the US was not involved and did not know who was responsible. He added that it was “too early to say” how it would affect Gaza ceasefire talks. After the pagers blasts, a Reuters journalist saw ambulances rushing through the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, amid widespread panic. At Mount Lebanon hospital just outside Beirut, a Reuters reporter saw motorcycles rushing to the emergency room and people with bloodied hands screaming in pain. The head of the Nabatieh public hospital in the south of the country, Hassan Wazni, told Reuters that around 40 wounded people were being treated at his facility. The wounds included injuries to the face, eyes and limbs. Here are some of the latest images from the newswires from Lebanon, after at least nine people were killed and almost 3,000 others wounded during the pagers explosion on Tuesday. A Pentagon spokesperson said the US had no involvement in Tuesday’s pager blasts in Lebanon. Air force Maj Gen Patrick Ryder told a news briefing: To my knowledge, there’s no US involvement in this at all. Again, it’s something that we’re monitoring. Schools in Lebanon will close on Wednesday, according to state media, after the pager explosions killed at least nine people and injured 2,800 on Tuesday. The pagers that exploded were new and had been bought by Hezbollah in recent months, a Lebanese security source told CNN. The source did not provide any information on the exact date the pagers were purchased or their model. A Hezbollah official told Associated Press that the pagers used by the group first heated up, then exploded. A former British Army munitions expert told the BBC that the devices would have likely been packed with between 10 and 20 grams each of military-grade high explosive, hidden inside a fake electronic component. This would have been armed by a signal, something called an alphanumeric text message, according to the expert. Gaza’s health ministry has identified 34,344 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks in the territory, publishing a list of names, ages, gender and ID numbers that cover more than 80% of those who have been killed in the war so far. The remaining 7,613 people included in its death toll, now more than 41,000, are Palestinians whose bodies have been received by hospitals and morgues, but whose identities have not yet been confirmed. The dead range from the very young to the very old. They include 169 babies born after the Hamas attacks of 7 October that began the war whose lives were shorter than the war that claimed their lives, and a man born in 1922 who survived more than a century of war and upheaval before he was killed. The document runs to 649 pages, with the dead listed largely by age. Gaza’s population is youthful, and the grim register underlines the high toll of Israeli attacks on Palestinian children. The US continues to believe that there needs to be a diplomatic solution to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday. Lebanon’s Hezbollah promised to retaliate after blaming Israel for detonating pagers on Tuesday that killed at least nine people and wounded 2,750 others, including many of the militant group’s fighters and Iran’s envoy to Beirut. “So we continue, we continue to believe that there … should be a diplomatic resolution to this,” Jean-Pierre said. It may not have been acknowledged by Israel, but the extraordinary, coordinated attack on Hezbollah, blowing up thousands of pagers used by members of the Lebanese group, is almost certainly a Mossad operation. The Israeli intelligence service has been engaged in the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders for decades but, if its involvement is confirmed, this represent a significant escalation. Reports continue to come in but, with at least nine dead and about 3,000 wounded in dozens, if not hundreds, of coordinated explosions, the episode demonstrates a ruthless – if indiscriminate – desire to target Hezbollah. The group had been using pagers as an alternative to mobile phones, which can be tracked and used to pinpoint deadly missile strikes on its commanders. It is unclear how the explosions were caused and, although there is inevitable speculation about hacking, it is most likely they came from sabotaged devices. Initial reports said that the pagers that exploded were a new model manufactured by a company whose supply chain may have been compromised by the perpetrators of the attack. Yossi Melman, co-author of Spies Against Armageddon and other books on Israeli intelligence, emphasised that it appeared the exploding pagers had been “recently supplied”, and added: “We know that Mossad is able to penetrate and infiltrate Hezbollah time and time again.” But he questioned the strategic wisdom of the attack, in which a 10-year-old girl died. Hamas has condemned the series of pager blasts across Lebanon as part of Israel’s “aggression” in the region, saying they were an escalation that would only lead Israel to “failure and defeat”, according to a statement released by the group. The United States said on Tuesday it is gathering information after at least eight people were killed and 2,750 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members – including fighters and medics – detonated simultaneously across Lebanon. State department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a regular news briefing the United States was not involved in the incidents and did not know who was responsible. Lebanon’s Hezbollah threatened to punish Israel in response to the incidents, Reuters reported. Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said the country was bracing for a major retaliation by Hezbollah. Bou Habib told the New York Times: If Israel thinks by this that they’re going to return their displaced people from the north of Israel, they are mistaken. This escalates this war. He added that the Lebanese government was now preparing to lodge a complaint at the UN security council. Hezbollah are definitely going to retaliate in a big way. How? Where? I don’t know. Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar, whose son Mahdi was reportedly killed on Tuesday in the pager explosion in Lebanon, spoke to the Associated Press. “This is a new Israeli aggression against Lebanon,” Ammar said. The resistance will retaliate in a suitable way at the suitable time. The sons of two other senior officials were wounded, the news agency reported, citing a Hezbollah official said. They are the son of Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah and the son of senior security official Wafiq Safa, according to the report. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has urged for more pressure on Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza, warning that every day that passes without a deal risks the lives of hostages and civilians – as well as a regional war breaking out. “The only thing I can say is that all actors involved have to continue putting pressure on both parties to reach this agreement,” Borrell told journalists in Dubai on Tuesday. Every day that the agreement is not being reached, it means more hostages will be retained and more people will be killed. So it’s not a matter of waiting for tomorrow. Tomorrow is already too late. The EU diplomat was speaking just after news broke from Lebanon of at least nine people killed and 2,800 others wounded by pager explosions across the country. Borrell said he would seek more information from Beirut, but acknowledged it could escalate the already-boiling tensions in the region: Certainly there is the possibility of the war spilling over to Lebanon. The UK-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 people were wounded in Syria by explosions of pagers. A statement by the group said: Fourteen people whose nationalities are unknown have been wounded in Damascus and its countryside after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded. Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said nine people are now confirmed dead in a series of explosions that targeted pagers across the country. Among those killed is an eight-year-old girl from Bekka Valley, Abiad said, according to Al Jazeera. At least 2,800 people have been wounded, he added, and more than 200 are in critical condition. As we reported earlier, Lebanon’s information minister condemned what he called “Israeli aggression” in reference to the explosions of pagers across the country. Ziad Makary, in quotes carried by Al Jazeera, said: Lebanon’s main priority is putting an end to the Israeli attacks targeting our citizens’ lives and livelihoods. “These crimes are the responsibility of the international community,” Makary added. The spokesperson for the secretary general of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric, has described the developments in Lebanon as “extremely concerning”, noting the “extremely volatile” context. “We deplore the civilian casualties that we have seen,” he said, adding: We cannot underscore enough the risks of escalation in Lebanon and in the region. The leader of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, was not harmed in the pager explosions, a senior Hezbollah source told Reuters. Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the explosion of pagers on Tuesday and warned Israel will receive a “just punishment”. A statement by the group translated by AFP reads: We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression. Electronic pager devices also exploded in Syria, according to multiple reports. Seven people were killed from blasts from their devices in the Damascus neighbourhood of Seyedah Zeinab, Saberin News, an outlet affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported. A number of Hezbollah members arrived at hospitals in Damascus after their devices exploded, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Lebanese government sees Israel as responsible for the pager explosions and sees it as violation of Lebanese sovereignty, a Lebanese government spokesperson has reportedly said. From Axios’s Barak Ravid: According to Reuters’ Timour Azhari, Lebanon’s information minister has also condemned “Israeli aggression”. In an earlier statement, Hezbollah said three people had been killed but did not mention Israel. At least eight people were killed and 2,750 wounded after pager explosions across Lebanon, according to the country’s health minister, Firass Abiad. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was wounded on Tuesday when a pager exploded, according to state media. Amani’s wounds were “superficial”, state media are reporting, adding that he was “conscious and in no danger”. Two Hezbollah fighters and a girl have been killed in a series of simultaneous detonations of pagers on Tuesday, the group said. In a statement, Hezbollah did not directly accuse Israel of being behind the operation. According to Al Jazeera, it said: At approximately 3:30pm on Tuesday 09-17-2024, a number of message receiving devices known as ‘pagers’ exploded, which were owned by a number of workers in various Hezbollah units and institutions. These explosions, the causes of which are still unknown, led to the martyrdom of a girl and two brothers, and the injury of a large number of people with various injuries. The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed when his pager exploded on Tuesday, her family has told AFP. The news agency quoted her relatives as saying: A 10-year-old girl was martyred in the Bekaa Valley after her father’s pager exploded while he was next to her. A Hezbollah fighter, the son of a Hezbollah MP, was killed in the pager explosion, two security sources told Reuters. Lebanese media are also reporting that the son of Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar was killed. From Timour Azhari of Reuters: More than 1,000 people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were injured when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, security sources told Reuters. This figure – which we have not yet independently verified - is far higher than the hundreds of injuries estimated in earlier reports. In other developments: The pagers that detonated were the latest model brought in by Hezbollah in recent months, three security sources told Reuters. The head of the the Nabatieh public hospital in southern Lebanon, Hassan Wazni, told Reuters that around 40 injured people were being treated at his facility, including for wounds to the face, eyes and limbs. The Lebanese Red Cross said more than 50 ambulances and 300 emergency medical staff were dispatched to help in the evacuation of victims. There has been no official comment by Israel yet about the simultaneous explosions in Lebanon. Hundreds of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, including fighters and medics, were seriously injured on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, a security source told Reuters. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those who were injured by the explosions, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported. A Hezbollah official said the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel. No deaths have been reported. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP the explosions were an “Israeli breach” of its communications. Israel’s domestic security agency said it had foiled a plot by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defence official in the coming days. The Shin Bet agency said it had seized an explosive device attached to a remote detonation system, using a mobile phone and a camera, that Hezbollah had planned to operate from Lebanon. At least 41,252 Palestinian people have been killed and 95,497 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. The Palestinian education ministry said 11,001 students – from schools and universities – have been killed and 17,772 injured in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023. There are reports that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is contemplating firing his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and replacing him with Gideon Saar, a member of the opposition and the New Hope party leader. Israel’s Business Forum, which consists of 200 heads of Israel’s largest companies that employ many private sector workers, urged Netanyahu to keep Gallant in his position as defence minister, saying it would create more division and weaken the country if he was let go. The Israeli daily Haaretz is reporting that the local council head of the northern Israeli town of Shlomi, Gabi Na’aman, has urged residents to stay near shelters. Na’aman wrote: Due to the unique security situation in which we have found ourselves in the past hour, I ask out of an abundance of caution to stay near your children and your shelters. Hundreds of people were injured across Lebanon when their pagers exploded earlier today, health minister Firass Abiad has said, with a source close to Hezbollah telling Agence France-Presse (AFP) its members were targeted. No deaths have been reported. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those who were injured by the explosions, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said Amani suffered a slight injury. “Amani has a superficial injury and is currently under observation in a hospital,” Fars quoted a source as saying. Regional broadcasters carrying CCTV footage which showed what appeared to be a small handheld device placed next to a grocery store cashier where an individual was paying spontaneously exploding. In other footage, an explosion appeared to knock out someone standing at a fruit stand at a market area. Lebanon’s crisis operations center has asked all medical workers to head to their respective hospitals to help cope with the massive numbers of injured people coming into for urgent care. It said health care workers should not use pagers. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the incident was a result of an “Israeli breach” of its communications. We have some more information on the reports that dozens of Hezbollah members were injured in Lebanon after the devices they use for communications exploded (see earlier post at 14.11). A Hezbollah official has told Reuters that the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel. A Reuters journalist saw ambulances rushing through the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, with residents saying explosions were taking place even 30 minutes after the initial blasts. There are reports – not yet verified by the Guardian - that the security breach that led to the explosions happened simultaneously in Beirut, Mount Lebanon and Dahieh. Since October, Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group from Lebanon, has carried out strikes on Israeli targets, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians impacted by Israel’s war on Gaza. Qatar’s foreign ministry said efforts to forge a Gaza truce, being mediated alongside Egypt and the US, were “ongoing”. Recent mediation in Doha and Cairo has been based on a framework laid out in May by the US president, Joe Biden, and a “bridging proposal” presented to Hamas and Israel in August. The May proposal offered a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in return for the release of all hostages and the long-term reconstruction of the shattered coastal strip. “The efforts are still ongoing and channels of communication remain open... the goals and visits and meetings are ongoing,” Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, told reporters. The US state department said yesterday that the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, would visit Egypt this week to “discuss ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire”, his tenth trip to the region since October. Pressure inside Israel for a deal has intensified after authorities announced the deaths of six hostages at the start of September after their bodies were recovered from a Gaza tunnel. But in the face of the external calls for an agreement, both Israel and Hamas have publicly signalled deeper entrenchment in their negotiating positions. A major impasse in the negotiations has been the Philadelphi corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and the Netzarim east-west corridor across the territory. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has claimed that Israel should retain control of the corridors to prevent smuggling and catch militant fighters. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, however, is demanding the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. The Reuters news agency has been told by sources that dozens of members of Hezbollah were seriously injured today in Lebanon’s south, and the southern suburbs of Beirut, when the pagers they use to communicate exploded. A Reuters journalist saw 10 Hezbollah members bleeding from wounds in the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh. These claims have not yet been independently verified by the Guardian. Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, has reported that Israel’s security forces have demolished two homes belonging to Palestinians in Khirbet Jbara, south of the city of Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. One of those whose home was destroyed, Muhammad Jabara, said that he had not been able to remove family possessions from the building before the Israeli forces demolished the house. In the last hour Israel’s military has reported on its official Telegram channel that “a number of UAVs were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Some of the UAVs were intercepted and some fell in an area adjacent to Ramot Naftali. No injuries were reported.” Sirens have been sounding in northern Israel “due to the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception”, it said. Lebanon’s house speaker, Nabih Berri, met with the head of Unrwa Philippe Lazzarini today. Lebanese state media reports that: Lazzarini expressed concern over the escalating conflict, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank, and the growing tensions between Israel and Lebanon. He highlighted the increasing displacement on both sides of the border and emphasised the need for preparedness, while hoping to avoid further escalation. Moreover, Lazzarini also raised concerns about continuous attacks on Unrwa and Israeli efforts to dismantle the agency, mentioning that its facilities and staff in Gaza face daily threats. Al Jazeera reports that its verification unit has ascertained via satellite imagery that in the northern Gaza Strip, Israel has completely destroyed nine UN-run schools, and partially destroyed three others that had been sheltering displaced civilians. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel. Here are some of the latest images coming from the newswires out of Gaza: Israel’s domestic security agency said it had foiled a plot by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defence official in the coming days, Reuters reports. The official was not named. The Shin Bet agency said it had seized an explosive device attached to a remote detonation system, using a mobile phone and a camera, that Hezbollah had planned to operate from Lebanon. Shin Bet said the attempted attack was similar to a Hezbollah plot foiled in Tel Aviv a year ago, without giving further details. There have been near daily exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since 7 October 2023, when Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, stormed into Israeli communities and military bases, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages. Patrick Wintour is diplomatic editor for the Guardian The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said Tehran has shown restraint so far in its response to the Israeli assassination of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh because it believes Israel has been trying to lure it into a regional war. Pezeshkian, a reformist who was elected unexpectedly three months ago, was speaking at a wide-ranging and unprecedented two-and-half-hour press conference in which nearly half of the questions were from foreign media. “What Israel has done in the region and what Israel tried with the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran was to drag us into a regional war,” he told reporters. “We have exercised restraint so far but we reserve the right to defend ourselves at a specific time and place with specific methods.” It remains a matter of debate whether Pezeshkian, who has a frank, consensual style, has access to the real levers of power or the political will to transform Iran’s relations with the west. But his use of a large international platform and often unpretentious direct manner suggests he is a new and unpredictable element in Iranian politics. You can read the full story here: German news media outlets have called on Israel to grant them access to Gaza, and for neighbouring Egypt to allow entry to the territory via the Rafah border crossing. “After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government: allow us to enter the Gaza Strip,” a group of newspapers, agencies and broadcasters wrote in an open letter. The media organisations wrote that “anyone who makes independent reporting on this war impossible is damaging their own credibility”. “Anyone who prohibits us from working in the Gaza Strip is creating the conditions for human rights to be violated.” The open letter was addressed to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and had been delivered on Monday. Signatories included editors and reporters from Der Spiegel, Die Welt, public broadcasters ARD and ZDF and the German Journalists Association. As of today, the Committee to Protect Journalist’s (CPJ) preliminary investigations showed at least 116 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began last October, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began collecting data in 1992. 111 of these journalists were Palestinian, three were Lebanese and two were Israeli. The CPJ said: To date, CPJ has determined that at least five journalists were directly targeted by Israeli forces in killings which CPJ classifies as murders: Issam Abdallah, Hamza Al Dahdouh, Mustafa Thuraya, Ismail Al Ghoul, and Rami Al Refee. CPJ is still researching the details for confirmation in at least 10 other cases that indicate possible targeting. Israel denies that it targets journalists, saying it only targets Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. As we mentioned in an earlier post, there are widespread reports that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is contemplating firing his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and replacing him with Gideon Saar, who is currently a member of the opposition and the New Hope party leader. Saar has been critical about making a deal with Hamas to end the war in Gaza, while Gallant has been pushing for a truce. Gallant has dismissed Netanyahu’s repeated aim of “total victory” as nonsense. He has also called for a clearer post-war plan that would see the enclave governed by Palestinians. Israel’s Business Forum has urged Netanyahu to keep Gallant in his position as defence minister, saying it would create more division and weaken the country if he was let go. The forum, which consists of 200 heads of Israel’s largest companies that employ many private sector workers, said Netanyahu should stop “messing around with petty politics” during a time of war. In a statement, the forum said: Immediately stop the process of replacing (Gallant). The firing of the minister weakens Israel in the eyes of her enemies, and will further deepen the division in the people of Israel… The prime minister knows better than anyone that all the economic indicators also prove that Israel is deteriorating into an economic abyss and sinking into a deep recession. The last thing Israel needs at this time is the firing of a defence minister - which will continue to shock the country. Netanyahu denied he was in negotiations with Saar, though he did not refer to his plans for Gallant. Rumours that Netanyahu would replace Gallant in a reshuffle have been circulating for months but seem to have recently picked up pace. In March 2023, Netanyahu fired Gallant after he broke ranks with the government and urged a halt to a highly contested plan to overhaul the judicial system. That triggered mass protests and Netanyahu backtracked on his decision. The Palestinian education ministry has said 11,001 students – from schools and universities – have been killed and 17,772 injured in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023. Here is a breakdown of the number of students and educational staff the ministry say have been killed, injured or arrested by Israeli forces between 7 October 2023 and 17 September 2024: At least 41,252 Palestinian people have been killed and 95,497 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The ministry has said thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave. Israeli forces have arrested 30 Palestinians, including a child and former prisoners, over the last 24 hours in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission. The total number of Palestinians detained in the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023 is estimated to have risen to over 10,700. Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the occupied West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state along with Gaza. Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, has reported that four Palestinian people, including a child, were killed by Israeli forces bombing several homes in the al-Bureij camp in central Gaza on Tuesday morning. Sources also told the outlet that a person was killed after Israeli soldiers bombed a bicycle in the Qizan Rashwan area in the southern city of Khan Younis. These claims are yet to have been independently verified by the Guardian. The US has announced fresh sanctions against five individuals and a company associated with the Intellexa Consortium for their role in developing and distributing spyware that allegedly presents “a significant threat” to US national security. The move comes months after the US government sanctioned Intellexa’s founder and other parties for their role in making and distributing commercial spyware used to target US officials, journalists and others. The US Treasury said on Monday it had sanctioned another five individuals associated with Intellexa’s international web of companies allegedly involved in supplying the group’s Predator spyware to foreign governments. They were targeted “for their role in developing, operating, and distributing commercial spyware technology that presents a significant threat to the national security of the United States,” the Treasury said in a statement. Predator spyware can be used to turn a target’s cellphone into a surveillance device and gain access to data stored and transmitted by the device. Acting Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Bradley Smith, said: The United States will not tolerate the reckless propagation of disruptive technologies that threatens our national security and undermines the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens. We will continue to hold accountable those that seek to enable the proliferation of exploitative technologies, while also encouraging the responsible development of technologies that align with international standards. Former US president Barack Obama hosted Yair Lapid, the Israeli opposition leader, in Washington on Monday. Lapid, who is also a former prime minister, thanked Obama for his “public support and efforts for the return of the Israeli abductees held in Gaza”, adding in a post on X: “I told him that we should all work together to secure a deal that will bring the abductees home.” There are reports that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering replacing his defence minister, Yoav Gallant. Israel’s leading television channels and news websites reported that Netanyahu, under pressure from far-right coalition partners, was contemplating firing Gallant and replacing him with former ally turned rival, Gideon Saar, who is a member of the opposition. Netanyahu has dismissed calls by Gallant and others to accept a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the southern border area of the Gaza Strip as the price of a ceasefire deal with Hamas. Gallant, who Netanyahu tried to fire in 2023, has been openly scornful of the Israeli prime minister’s repeated aim of “total victory” in Gaza, which he has dismissed as “nonsense”. “Instead of the prime minister being busy with victory over Hamas, returning the hostages, with the war against Hezbollah and allowing (evacuated) residents of the north to return to their homes, he is busy with despicable political dealings and replacing the defence minister,” Benny Gantz, the centre-right National Unity party leader and Netanyahu’s main political rival, wrote on social media. Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza. Israel has expanded its stated goals of the war to include enabling residents to return to communities in northern Israel that have been evacuated due to attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. The decision was approved during an overnight meeting of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, his office said. Tens of thousands of Israelis were evacuated from towns along the northern frontier that have been badly damaged by rocket fire and have yet to return. Separately, on Monday, Israel’s defence minister said “the possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas, and refuses to end the conflict. Therefore, the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action.” It comes as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was due to travel to Cairo to discuss a proposal for a ceasefire deal and release of hostages. It will be his 10th trip to the region since the outbreak of the war almost a year ago. The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, meanwhile, has warned of the devastating consequences of further regional escalation in the conflict. In a statement from the US defence department, he “reaffirmed the necessity of a ceasefire and hostage deal, and that Israel should give diplomatic negotiations time to succeed, noting the devastating consequences that escalation would have on the people of Israel, Lebanon, and the broader region.” Here is a summary of the day’s other main events: Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar has said the Palestinian militant group had the resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from Iran-backed regional allies. In a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies, the Houthis, he said “we have prepared ourselves to fight a long war of attrition … our combined efforts with you” and with groups in Lebanon and Iraq “will break this enemy and inflict defeat on it”. Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes killed 16 people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including five women and four children. A strike flattened a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 10 people there, according to officials at the Awda hospital, which received the bodies. Another strike on a home in Gaza City killed six people, according to the civil defence first responders. UN secretary general António Guterres has said that “nothing justifies” the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. “We all condemn the terror attacks made by Hamas, as well as the taking of the hostages, that is an absolute violation of international humanitarian law,” he said, before adding “the truth is that nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, and that is what we are witnessing in a dramatic way in Gaza”. Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, told Agence France-Presse that new generations of fighters have been recruited since the 7 October attacks. Polio vaccination coverage in Gaza has reached 90%, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday, adding that the next step was to ensure hundreds of thousands of children got a second dose at the end of the month. The campaign, which began on 1 September, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza under 10 years of age against polio. Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to New York on 24 September, the first day of the high-level general debate by world leaders at the annual UN general assembly, his office has said. It said the Israeli prime minister is scheduled to stay until 28 September in the US, which he had visited in July for official talks and a congressional address. |
The Guardian;Lebanon pager explosions: what we know so far;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/lebanon-pager-explosions-what-we-know-so-far;2024-09-17T21:16:38Z | Pagers used by hundreds of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding thousands in a dramatic and unprecedented attack at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East. Here’s what we know so far: At least nine people were killed in the attack in Lebanon, officials said. Among those killed was a 10-year-old girl, according to Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad. The latest casualty figures by officials include about 2,750 wounded. Those wounded in the attack include Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani. Hezbollah fighters in Syria were also injured in the attack, with several reportedly being treated in hospitals in Damascus. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Saberin News reported that some guards in Syria had also been killed. A Hezbollah official said the detonation of the pagers was the biggest security breach for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel. The blasts appeared to exploit the low-tech pagers that Hezbollah has adopted in order to prevent the targeted assassinations of its members. The pagers were reportedly a new brand. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel. The group said two of its fighters were among the dead and threatened a “just punishment”. “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” a statement said. The son of the Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar reportedly also died in the explosions, as did two sons of other prominent Hezbollah figures. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the blasts. The attack took place just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the 7 October Hamas attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah. The attack followed months of targeted assassinations by Israel against senior Hezbollah leaders. Lebanon’s health ministry put hospitals across the country on “maximum alert” and instructed citizens to distance themselves from wireless communication devices. Hezbollah maintains its own communication network separate from the rest of Lebanon. It also comes as US officials try to de-escalate tensions between the two sides, and could derail US efforts to prevent Iran from retaliating against Israel for the July bombing in Tehran that killed the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. The US government said it “was not aware of this incident in advance”. The state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told a briefing that Washington was not involved and did not know who was responsible. He added it was “too early to say” how it would affect Gaza ceasefire talks. |
The Guardian;Hezbollah pager explosions: questions over strategy behind unprecedented attack;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/hezbollah-pager-explosions-if-caused-by-the-mossad-would-be-a-big-escalation;2024-09-17T18:18:37Z | It may not have been acknowledged by Israel but the extraordinary, coordinated attack on Hezbollah, blowing up thousands of pagers used by members of the Lebanese group, is almost certainly a Mossad operation. The Israeli intelligence service has been engaged in the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders for decades but, if its involvement is confirmed, this represents a significant escalation. Reports continue to come in but, with at least nine dead and about 3,000 wounded in dozens, if not hundreds, of coordinated explosions, the episode demonstrates a ruthless and indiscriminate desire to target Hezbollah. The group had been using pagers as an alternative to mobile phones, which can be tracked and used to pinpoint deadly missile strikes on its commanders. It is unclear how the explosions were caused and, although there is inevitable speculation about hacking, it is most likely they were the result of sabotaged devices. Initial reports said the pagers that exploded were a new model manufactured by a company whose supply chain may have been compromised by the perpetrators of the attack. Yossi Melman, a co-author of Spies Against Armageddon and other books on Israeli intelligence, emphasised that it appeared the exploding pagers had been “recently supplied”, and added: “We know that Mossad is able to penetrate and infiltrate Hezbollah time and time again,” he added. But he questioned the strategic wisdom of the attack, in which a 10-year-old girl died. “It enhances the chance of an escalation of the border crisis into a war,” Melman warned, and argued it was “more of a sign of panic” because, while he said it showed an extraordinary ability to strike at the heart of Hezbollah, it was neither very targeted, nor would it would change the wider strategic picture. “I don’t see any advance in it,” he concluded. At the very least, Melman argued, some sort of response from Hezbollah was likely. Earlier on Tuesday it had emerged that the Iran-aligned Lebanese group, who have been engaged in a violent tit-for-tat with Israel for months, had, according to Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service, planned to kill a former Israeli security official by remotely detonating an explosive device from Lebanon. That could suggest the pager attack was a grim warning of the “anything you can do, we can do better” variety. But it would also be far from the first time Israel has engaged in an assassination or other spectacular attack and the results have backfired – or the situation not developed as intended. A sabotaged mobile phone was used as long ago as January 1996 to blow up Yahya Ayyash, then Hamas’s chief bomb maker, in Gaza City. Ayyash, known as “The Engineer”, was considered responsible for introducing the strategy of carrying out suicide attacks on Israeli passenger buses – but his killing prompted a fresh wave of bus bombings and did little to calm the crisis at the time. Khaled Meshal, another Hamas leader, survived an assassination attempt in 1997. Meshal, then Hamas’s political leader, had poison injected in his ear in an operation authorised by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, while in Jordan. Meshal survived, and some of the Israeli agents responsible were arrested – prompting Jordan’s King Hussein to break off a peace accord and threaten to hang the plotters unless an antidote was supplied. An embarrassed Israel was forced to do so. Five hours after arriving in Dubai in February 2010, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas leader responsible for weapons procurement, was killed in his hotel room by a team of 11 assassins who used fake European passports to conceal their identities. Hamas accused Israel of being behind the plot, some aspects of which could be seen in CCTV footage released by the Dubai authorities. Some of the agents changed their disguises in a deadly operation that, for all its elaborateness, was detected. Since the start of Israel’s latest war with Hamas, there have been many more attempts to take out leaders of the Palestinian militant group. Ismail Haniyeh, then the group’s political leader, was killed by a “short range projectile” in Tehran in August – prompting warnings from Iran it would respond with direct military action against Israel. Though Iran has refrained from an attack, the war between Israel and Hamas is close to entering its second year, and tensions with Hezbollah in the north have arguably never been higher. |
The Guardian;Gaza publishes identities of 34,344 Palestinians killed in war with Israel;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/gaza-publishes-identities-of-34344-palestinians-killed-in-war-with-israel;2024-09-17T18:06:11Z | Gaza’s health ministry has identified 34,344 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks in the territory, publishing a list of names, ages, gender and ID numbers that cover more than 80% of Palestinians killed in the war so far. The remaining 7,613 people included in its death toll, which is now above 41,000, are Palestinians whose bodies have been received by hospitals and morgues, but whose identities have not yet been confirmed. The identified people include 169 babies born after the Hamas attacks of 7 October that began the war, and a man born in 1922 who had survived more than a century of war and upheaval. The document runs to 649 pages, with the dead listed largely by age. Gaza’s population is youthful, and the register underlines the high toll of Israeli attacks on Palestinian children. More than 100 pages are filled with the names of victims under 10 years old, and the first adult names do not appear until page 215. Israeli officials question the death toll given by the authorities in Gaza, arguing that because Hamas controls the government there, Gaza’s health officials cannot provide reliable figures. However, doctors and civil servants in the territory have a credible record from past wars. After several conflicts between 2009 and 2021, United Nations investigators drew up their own lists of the dead and found they closely matched ones from Gaza. “Unfortunately, we have the sad experience of coordinating with the ministry of health on casualty figures every few years,” Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for the UN secretary general, has said. “Their figures have proven to be generally accurate.” Palestinian authorities have been regularly updating the lists of those confirmed dead. This latest release adds more than 2,000 names. It does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but a majority of the 34,344 dead can be identified as civilians based on age and gender alone. It includes 11,355 children, 2,955 people aged 60 or older, and 6,297 women. There are also many civilian men of fighting age who have been killed. Israel claims it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. It does not provide an estimate of civilians killed in Gaza. The official death toll provided by health authorities does not tell the full story of Palestinian losses, because it excludes people buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings, and those not directly killed by bombs or bullets. About 10,000 people killed by airstrikes are thought to remain entombed in collapsed buildings, because there has been little heavy equipment or fuel to dig through steel and concrete ruins to look for them, according to health officials. Hunger, lack of shelter and medication, the rapid spread of infectious diseases and the collapse of the healthcare system has claimed many other lives. Palestinian authorities plan to count those dead when the fighting stops, Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at the ministry of health, has said. |
The Guardian;Palestinian and Israeli leaders need to have conversations like this | Letters;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/palestinian-and-israeli-leaders-need-to-have-conversations-like-this;2024-09-17T16:33:31Z | Thank you for sharing the conversation between Orna Guralnik, an Israeli, and Christine, a Palestinian (‘Many people would throw a tantrum at this point’: An Israeli and a Palestinian discuss 7 October, Gaza – and the future, 13 September). We believe these dialogues, though uncomfortable and sometimes triggering, are hugely important to fight the polarisation that we’re facing. We are two friends in London – one European Jewish, one Lebanese – grappling in our own way with the Israel-Palestine conflict. The 7 October attacks in Israel and subsequent war have deeply affected us both: one distressed by the attacks and rising antisemitism in Europe, the other anxious about Lebanon’s vulnerability and the rising threat to Palestinian statehood. Our narratives transcend simple labels. We share fears, pains and hopes that don’t fit neatly into binary public narratives or social media soundbites. Seeking understanding, we began meeting to discuss the conflict’s complex angles, knowing full comprehension would take lifetimes. We also noticed a growing divide around us – people from different communities stopped talking to each other; hate spread on the streets but also among friends and colleagues. Scared by this trend and driven by our belief in bridge-building, we felt compelled to act and started hosting listening circles, inviting anyone connected to the region or interested in the topic. These circles provide a safe space to express ourselves, hear others differently and connect vulnerably. They’re not about debate or convincing, but about learning, empathising and building trust. So far, we’ve hosted 12 circles. They have become outlets for difficult emotions and spaces for genuine connection. Our experience shows the power of sitting with discomfort and truly listening. It’s a small step, but one we believe is vital in nurturing understanding and empathy in these challenging times. Through these circles, we’re learning that shared humanity can transcend political divides, offering hope for mutual understanding and hopefully, eventual peace. Lola Wajskop and Ramzi Rafih London • What saddens me most is that discussions like these, which acknowledge the deep pain on both sides, seem rare at the decision-making level. Without such conversations happening among leaders, it’s hard to see how the dialogue between Orna and Christine can lead to significant change. It is heartening to witness two individuals, both deeply affected by the conflict and holding opposing views, attempting to understand each other’s suffering while also grappling with their own perspectives of responsibility. Often, the debate centres on “who started it”, and it feels unjust that countries like Germany, whose history with the Holocaust is intertwined with the establishment of Israel, or the US, whose political and military support for Israel has shaped the region, are geographically distant from the ongoing tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Monika Ma London • This conversation was frustrating to read. As a Palestinian from Gaza living in Germany, I have found myself in these types of situations and recognise the patterns of argument from supporters of Israel (even if critical of the current government). I have been asked to privilege the pain and trauma inflicted on the Jews over my own people’s suffering, and I believe this is what Orna is asking of Christine. It is frankly disheartening to read that Orna insists on borders that would keep her separate from the people who are indigenous to the land she is claiming as her home. I wonder why Orna would feel comfortable asking Christine to subscribe to a version of the future that prioritises her own safety in such a way. It would be very hard for me to maintain a friendship with a person who asks me to take a back seat when envisioning a shared future. Abir Al-Laham Heidelberg, Germany • I would love to see this conversation made into a play for the stage. It is exactly what I, as an American Jew who has lost friends and family over my opinions about Israel and the war, have wanted to see. I think it captures so much and although I know the staunch supporters of Israel among my family and friends will not read this article, as they tuned out any criticism or alternative voices on this topic months ago, I do think if it were made into a theatrical performance they might watch it. Jill S Levien Cambridge, Massachusetts, US • I wanted to write in to acknowledge how extraordinary the exchange about Israel and Palestine between Orna Guralnik and Christine was. It was by far the most nuanced and thoughtful journalism I’ve seen on the topic since 7 October, but at the same time, it didn’t shy away from the harrowing and heartbreaking human stories behind the small-p politics. I’m in awe of both Orna and Christine, and I hope to hear more from both of them, just as much as I hope to learn myself from their incredible candour and open-mindedness. Thank you! Jack Collier Sheffield • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section. |
The Guardian;First picture of wreckage of Titan sub after implosion revealed at hearing ;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/photo-titan-submersible-wreckage;2024-09-17T16:26:31Z | The first picture of the Titan submersible following its deadly June 2023 implosion was revealed on Monday by the US Coast Guard as authorities opened a public hearing into the deaths of five people onboard. The accident’s victims were killed when intense ocean pressure caused the Titan to collapse in on itself off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. They were the British explorer Hamish Harding; the British Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; Stockton Rush, the chief executive officer of OceanGate, the American company that owned the Titan; and the French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet. Monday’s hearing revealed new details about the implosion of the Titan and its parent company. The newly released image provided most of the public its first glimpse of the Titan’s broken tail cone on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. Fragments of the vessel are also visible on the ocean floor – debris that recovery crews found in the wake of the implosion. The Marine Board of Investigation said the Titan’s detached tail cone and other debris provided “conclusive evidence” that the vessel experienced a “catastrophic implosion”, CNN reported. Text messages sent from the Titan’s crew to the Polar Prince, a nearby support ship, also gave new insight into the accident. At one point during its ill-fated trip, the Titan was asked by the Polar Prince if the former could still see the latter on its informational display. The crew responded “all good here” as the vessel descended further. In a final message, Titan’s crew texted “dropped two wts”, CNN reported, meaning that the submersible had shed two measures of weight in hopes of returning to the ocean’s surface. OceanGate, the company that developed the Titan, has faced endured scrutiny as witnesses have come forward saying they had concerns about the vessel’s construction before its doomed final trip. Tony Nissen, the former engineering director for OceanGate, said that he felt rushed to get the Titan into the water, testifying that he “100%” experienced pressure from higher-ups to do so. Tym Catterson, who worked as a contractor for OceanGate, testified on Monday that he was not comfortable traveling in the Titan because of his questions regarding the vessel’s carbon fiber and titanium construction, ABC News reported. “I don’t believe that the composites are the correct material for a pressure vessel that’s experiencing external compression,” he said, adding that he had “doubts”. Catterson also said that he relayed his worries to several OceanGate employees. The hearing began on Monday and is expected to continue for two weeks. It is meant to “uncover the facts surrounding” the Titan’s fatal implosion, said Jason Neubauer, the chair of the Marine Board of Investigation. It will also investigate any potential “misconduct or negligence by … mariners” credentialed to navigate by the US. Those traveling on the Titan were killed after descending into the deep north Atlantic to view the Titanic, the British passenger liner that was once described as “practically unsinkable” but sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people. |
The Guardian;Central Europe braces for further flooding as swollen rivers continue to rise;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/central-europe-flooding-rivers-storm-boris;2024-09-17T14:41:58Z | As swollen rivers continued to rise, volunteers and emergency workers in towns and cities across a swathe of central Europe were reinforcing defences against floods that have killed at least 21 people in four countries. Storm Boris has dumped up to five times the average September rainfall on parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia in four days, submerging entire neighbourhoods and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate. Seven people have died in Romania, six in Poland, five in Austria and three in the Czech Republic, officials said on Tuesday, with several missing. The rain was easing in some areas but water levels in others were not expected to peak for several days. The Danube River had peaked in Slovakia, the environment minister, Tomáš Taraba, said, leaving parts of Bratislava’s old town flooded. It was still rising in Hungary, including by about a metre every 24 hours in Budapest. Mobile dams were in place at the historical towns of Visegrád and Szentendre, north of Budapest. Tram lines and roads alongside the river, as well as the popular Margaret island, have been closed and a million sandbags distributed. In eastern Germany, authorities were also taking precautions, with mobile flood protection walls set up in some areas to protect Dresden’s old city as the Elbe rose steadily. The river was expected to peak by midweek. In Poland, the mayor of the historical city of Wrocław, Jacek Sutryk, said on Tuesday buses had been prepared for an evacuation. “Today we will also be further reinforcing embankments in the [Oder] river basin,” he said. The Oder is expected to peak on Friday, or perhaps sooner, in the city, which is home to 600,000 people. Wrocław zoo, alongside the river, appealed for volunteers to fill sandbags. “We and our animals will be extremely grateful for your help,” it said. Extreme rainfall is becoming more common and intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, particularly in Europe, most of Asia, central and eastern North America, and parts of South America, Africa and Australia. Warmer air can hold more water vapour, while human factors, such as flood defence planning and land use, are also important factors in consequent flooding. Climate breakdown is also making heatwaves more intense and more likely to happen, increasing the risk of devastating wildfires. As rescue workers battled floods in central Europe, firefighters in Portugal fought fires that have killed seven people. Near the border between Poland and the Czech Republic, one of the hardest-hit areas, 2,000 volunteers from the Polish town of Nysa’s population of 44,000 spent Monday night helping rescue workers build up a burst river embankment. “Please evacuate your belongings, yourselves, your loved ones. It is worth getting to the top floor of the building immediately, because the wave may be several metres high,” the town’s mayor, Kordian Kolbiarz, had told residents on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, the mayor said on Facebook that “women, men, children and the elderly” had come out to try to save their town. “We simply … did everything we could,” Kolbiarz wrote on Facebook. “We fought for Nysa. Our home. Our future.” A huge reservoir near the border aimed at reducing water levels and preventing flood waters from the Odra and Nysa from merging – as they did in catastrophic flooding in 1997 – was about 80% full, authorities said. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, on Monday announced an emergency relief fund of 1bn złotys (€200m) for flood victims in the country, adding that Poland would apply for EU relief funds. In the Czech Republic, where more than 60,000 homes were still without electricity, the governor of the north-eastern Moravia-Silesian region, Josef Belica, said 15,000 people had been evacuated and helicopters were delivering aid to towns and villages cut off by flood water. Eight people were unaccounted for. In the eastern city of Krnov, people were beginning to cart away debris on Tuesday. “All the pavements are destroyed, everything’s toppled, everything’s broken … It’s a nightmare,” Eliska Cokreska, 76, told Agence France-Presse. The fire service delivered bottles of drinking water to villages cut off by the floods, with people told not to drink tap water as it would be heavily contaminated. In Austria, the state of Lower Austria has been declared a disaster zone. The flooding has broken a dozen dams, with muddy rivers raging through devastated villages and thousands of households without electricity and water. Twenty-six communities were still cut off. As the weather improved, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the state governor, said: “We are discovering the scale of the disaster.” In the Austrian town of St Pölten, more rain has fallen in four days than in the whole of the wettest autumn on record 75 years ago. The army has been deployed across the region and a €300m emergency fund made available. Weather in the region is expected to improve steadily from late on Tuesday, but Storm Boris is forecast to move to northern Italy, where the region of Emilia-Romagna is bracing for the impact of 100-150mm of rainfall. Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report |
The Guardian;Rat winter: why vermin are crawling up our sewage pipes;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/rat-winter-why-vermin-are-crawling-up-our-sewage-pipes;2024-09-17T14:41:36Z | Name: Rat winter. Age: It hasn’t even properly begun yet … but when it does, you’ll know. After a Brat summer … A Rat winter, exactly. Who ya gonna call? Kieran Sampler, perhaps. A rat-catcher? Operating in Yorkshire. He reckons he has killed more than 65,000 of them. Well, Poppy and Penny have, mostly. Sampler’s sisters? Daughters? A family business is it? His lakeland terriers. He says they’re more humane than poison. Still terrierism though. Is there any reason we’re talking about Sampler, rather than any of the other 854 pest control businesses in the UK? Because he has just dealt with a particularly gruesome case. Ooh, go on. He got a call to a house after a giant rat came up the toilet … while a woman was sitting on it. “She was screaming,” Sampler told the Sun. “Imagine being on the toilet and something brushes against you.” Eesh! Are we sure he’s not making this up? There’s a photo of the rat – nose sticking out of the water, whiskers, those creepy little claws. Ew! Did Poppy and Penny do their thing? That one ended up drowning, but on the rat front, Sampler thinks “this winter is going to be bad”. Why are winters bad? When the temperature drops you tend to stay indoors more, right? Right. Rats, too. “As the winter approaches, rats constantly search for shelter and food reserves to survive the harsh temperatures,” a blogpost by pest control people Rentokil advises. So, they come up the drains? Or they might be lurking under your decking. Rats love decking, apparently. And old buildings are especially vulnerable to attack. Plagues of rats have been known to rampage through ageing NHS hospitals. Aggghhh! How do I keep them out of my home? Seal entry points, don’t leave food or rubbish lying around, cut back garden foliage. Sampler warns that bird feeders attract them. Also dog poo – pick it up. And, of course, in a city you’re never more than 6ft from a rat. That might be more urban myth than fact, another rat-catcher told the Guardian last year. But he also said there have always been rats in the city and there always will be. Where’s the Pied Piper when you need him? Hamelin? But remember the story: he did get rid of the rats but then he took the children, too. Fine, have them. I’d rather that than a huge rat in the loo. Childless cat ladies are having a moment, why not childless rat ladies? Do say: [Whistles] “Poppy, Penny, at ’em.” Don’t say: “Aw, cute though, I name him Toilet Scabbers.” |
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